Andrey SenchenkoSport correspondentAll materialsEmail to the author Avangard Omsk dropped out of the KHL playoffs and resigned as champions. Metallurg and Traktor will meet in the East final, while CSKA and SKA will face each other in the West. CSKA and SKA are all stable The army derby in the West final has become a classic of the modern KHL. Over the past seven seasons, CSKA and SKA have fought for a ticket to the Gagarin Cup final five times: in 2017, the template was broken by Alexei Kudashov’s Lokomotiv, and in 2020, the coronavirus pandemic intervened. CSKA is one of the main contenders for the championship. In the summer, the decision of the leadership of the red-blue to appoint Sergei Fedorov as the head coach of the team was questioned, which only intensified with the fussy game of the Muscovites at the start of the championship. By the decisive segment of the season, CSKA has changed: the “soldiers” began to play easier with an emphasis on results, not entertainment. Now Fedorov's headquarters is squeezing only the bare necessities from the leaders of the team, and the departure of the Swedes Lukas Wallmark and Joakim Nordstrom had no effect on the state of CSKA.
