Kuznetsov of his happiness: how are things going for Ovechkin's ex-partner

In the KHL regular season, most clubs have already played more than 35 matches out of the required 68, but the struggle for leadership and a place in the playoffs continues. Metallurg Magnitogorsk, which is leading the way, has significantly broken away from its competitors, but it also intrigues the public with the situation around one of the strongest Russian strikers of the last 15 years, Evgeny Kuznetsov, who recently scored his first goal for the club, but continues to periodically drop out of the squad. The first weeks after the December break were marked by two curious stories involving referees, as well as the continuation of the tough fight for entry into the playoffs in the East.

Kuznetsov's goal

In October, Metallurg signed the star striker, who returned to Russia from the NHL in August 2024, signing a four-year contract with SKA, terminated in April. Even then, questions arose about how Kuznetsov would get along with the head coach of Magnitogorsk, Andrei Razin, who had not previously worked with players of this status and differed in specific methods of motivating his players.

Given that Evgeny periodically dropped out of SKA, as well as his last NHL teams, it raised questions whether he would be able to finalize the contract with the Ural club, concluded before the end of this season. As a result, Alexander Ovechkin's long-term partner in the Washington Capitals began to find himself outside the application for matches quite often. Razin explained this by the player's unwillingness to constantly perform at his level.

The club's management also stressed that Kuznetsov would need time to adjust to the coach's requirements, and at the same time get in shape, which the hockey player lost due to the fact that he was without a club during the preseason and the beginning of the season. However, at first, the 34-year-old striker got into the squad regularly. Having made his debut for Metallurg on October 10, he played on the ice until the end of the month and made five assists in the first four matches.

But in November, he began to periodically drop out of the squad. For a long time, the 2018 Stanley Cup winner and two–time world champion failed to score the first goal for a new club. It wasn't until December 17, when the KHL took a week-long break for the Channel One Cup, that Kuznetsov was able to distinguish himself in a 6-1 away game against Sochi, scoring his first goal of the season. However, this has not had a positive effect on his playing time so far — in the next match, an away match against Traktor Chelyabinsk (7-4), the striker spent only five minutes on the ice. And on December 22, he was completely out of the application again, when Metallurg played at home with Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk (4:3B).

Meanwhile, Magnitogorsk is still confidently leading in the regular season (five points ahead of its closest pursuers) due to teamwork, as well as the high performance of other attackers. Vladimir Tkachev with 47 (9+38) and Roman Kanzerov with 40 (23+17) points are currently in the top ten of the KHL goal+pass scorers, as well as Dmitry Silantyev, who is ninth, with 34 (16+18) points.

Tkachev, who joined Magnitogorsk in the summer, leads the league among assistants, and the young Kanzerov, who became the hero of Metallurg's victorious Gagarin Cup 2024, ranks first in the sniper dispute in terms of the number of goals. But the team is confident that Kuznetsov will gain his form as the season progresses.

"Kuzya is working, we are already used to him, he is with us," Silantyev told Izvestia. — He feels comfortable in the team and in the city. I think everything will be fine with him and with us. And in the near future, he will show himself better and better on the ice.

Judges

In Yaroslavl, during a match between local Lokomotiv and CSKA Moscow, the head coach of the hosts, Bob Hartley, got into a dispute with the referees because of an incorrectly recorded run. As a result, he achieved a change of decision — the throw-in was scheduled in the central circle, and not in the railwaymen's zone. But then the referees started discussing the Canadian coach when one of them had the microphone on.

As a result, the entire arena and the audience on the broadcast heard one of the judges say, with an admixture of profanity, "He doesn't know what to say: fac, fac. Grandfather is shaking..."

The match was served by chief referees Sergey Morozov and Viktor Birin, as well as line judges Maxim Kupriyanov and Yaroslav Parikov. Lokomotiv won the shootout (2-1), and at the post-match press conference, its head coach laughed it off by inviting the referees to dinner. Later, their boss, KHL chief referee Alexei Anisimov, personally apologized to the 65-year-old Hartley.

Meanwhile, in the match between Nizhnekamsk Neftekhimik and Omsk Avangard, two players accidentally struck the referee. In the 32nd minute of the match, a fight broke out between Neftekhimik striker Bulat Shafigullin and Avangard defender Joseph Cecconi. Shafigullin tried to hit his opponent, but got into the referee, for which he was sent off until the end of the game. Cecconi also touched the referee, but during the meeting he dispensed with a fine. After the fact, both players received a one-match suspension from the KHL Sports Disciplinary Committee.

"Perhaps the judges shouldn't have discussed Hartley in such a way, but on the other hand, it was their private conversation, which they didn't want to go public," two—time Olympic champion Alexander Kozhevnikov shared his opinion with Izvestia. — There's nothing you can do about it, there's a technical problem, or one of the referees just had to watch his microphone more closely. But the fact that they can discuss one of the coaches in their private conversations is normal. They're not being rude to him personally. Moreover, they themselves often get hurt by coaches, especially Canadian ones, who try to put pressure on their authority. The same Hartley sinned more than once back in the days when he headed Avangard. As for the story of Shafigullin and Cecconi, no one was going to beat the judges. Another question is whether this fight was necessary at all, but it is at the discretion of the judges who allowed it.

The battle for the Playoffs

In the Eastern Conference, only the top four represented by Metallurg, Avangard, Ak Bars Kazan and Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg can feel confident in terms of reaching the playoffs. The remaining seven teams are fighting hard for the remaining four places, which give them the right to continue the season in the relegation series in the spring.

Moreover, even Admiral Vladivostok and Sibir Novosibirsk, which are the last, have a good chance of success, lagging only eight points behind Neftekhimik, which occupies the fifth place. Novosibirsk residents were able to recover from the protracted autumn crisis in the form of 13 defeats in a row. Then Yaroslav Luzenkov, who previously worked only in youth hockey, took over the post of head coach of the team. And with him, the team approached the playoff zone, where, in addition to the listed clubs, Khabarovsk Amur, Astana Barys, Chelyabinsk Traktor and Ufa Salavat Yulaev are also fighting.

In the West, the intrigue in the battle for the playoffs is less interesting. Of the three teams outside the top eight, Sochi and Tolyatti Lada are very far behind their competitors, and only the Shanghai Dragons based in St. Petersburg have a chance to impose a fight on St. Petersburg SKA, CSKA Moscow and Spartak.