On September 22, Admiral will play the third game of the first home series. The opponents are CSKA. The Sailors have already met the Moscow team in the framework of the KHL FONBET Championship. The game ended in a 2:6 defeat for the team from Primorye.
The Army Men traveled to the Far East after two home victories over Dynamo Moscow and Vityaz. Victories of the capital city team alternate with defeats. And so far, there is a schedule - two victories, two defeats. If this is right, then the Moscow team's is going to lose in Vladivostok.
Meanwhile, CSKA is third in the Western Conference Standings. They have nine points. They won four of their seven games, and one of the games went to overtime.
Vitaly Abramov, leader of CSKA’s offence, is top scorer of the league, having 12 points. Maxim Sorkin is not far behind him (on the 3rd place). However, the Sailors Daniil Gutik (10 points) and Pavel Shen (9 points) are also in the top five.
Nikita Nesterov is in the top 5 scorers among the KHL defensemen. The experienced defense player has six points.
The teams have total of 20 face-to-face meetings. A significant advantage is on the side of the Army Men, they won 17 games, never losing on their own ice. They lost in Vladivostok. They definitely shouldn't expect an easy trip to Primorye. The hockey promises to be entertaining, as the teams are on pace to become the leaders in the number of goals scored in their conferences. CSKA scored 27 goals in seven games, while Admiral had five games to reach the 20-goal mark.
Offseason
It's hard to call CSKA's transfer market policy aggressive in recent years. There were some changes, but they were small. The fans didn't have to learn the roster from scratch. But apparently, it’s time for serious changes. Grigorenko, Slepyshev, Svetlakov, Plotnikov, and Dietz, players whose names are strongly associated with the team, has left the team. Ivan Fedotov, whose last year transfer made a lot of noise, left as well. The old guard has been replaced by the American paratroopers. No, these are not legionnaires, but our guys who played overseas. Denis Guryanov, who has 52 pucks in 298 NHL games. He will try to take over Grigorenko's sniper role. Nikita Okhotyuk, one of the defensive players on San Jose's main roster last season, will try to perform as a defensive wrecker. Colorado's Ivan Prosvetov, 25 y. o., has been assigned for the role of number one on the back line. And that's only half of those who decided to return to Russia. But the Army Men have had time to work on the local market as well. During exchange, Salavat Yulaev's third top scorer Ivan Drozdov moved to Moscow from Ufa. The young forward is getting better every season, and by the age of 24 he had reached the mark of 48 points per season.
Familiar faces
We'll have to watch old friend Colby in a CSKA uniform until at least the spring of 2026. Williams, a technical homeboy, played 33 games for the Army Men last season, scoring 9 points with a P/M +12, it was enough to sign a two-year contract. Actually, season of official games hasn’t started for him yet. The injury that he got during the match for Mayor’s Cup made him wait.
Upcoming game
The meeting between Admiral and CSKA will take place on the ice of Fetisov Arena. The starting faceoff will be at 17:00. Broadcast of the game is on the OTV-Prim, KHL TV channels and on the KINOPOISK.
