Words about the lack of intrigue in the Continental Hockey League (KHL ) are no longer relevant. Just a year ago, CSKA Moscow and Ak Bars Kazan fought each other in the final of the Gagarin Cup and entered the new season as one of the main contenders for the championship. But instead of the path to success, the army team and the Kazan team ended their participation in the tournament ahead of schedule: both clubs were eliminated from the playoffs at the stage of the first round!
This happened only for the second time in the history of the KHL: ten years ago, Traktor and the capital’s Dynamo, as former finalists of the Gagarin Cup, also dropped out of the competition for the new trophy in the first round. And if in the case of CSKA, even against the background of all the problems of the army team during the regular season, the early departure of the army team is still sensational, then the failure of Ak Bars surprises few people.
Continental Hockey League (KHL)08 March 2024 • start at 17:00Finished
Ak BarsRussia1 : 2
AvtomobilistRussia
20:31 • Alexander Radulov (Dmitry Yashkin, Dmitry Yudin)
19:39 • Alexey Byvaltsev43:19 • Semyon Kizimov (Stepan Khripunov, Jesse Blacker)
The Kazan players have been busy all season they strangled their opponents and did everything to ensure that no one watched the matches with their participation. The state of affairs was unlikely to suit the hockey players themselves, whom, according to rumors, Zinetula Bilyaletdinov did not give a calm and normal life.
The Ak Bars coach himself always insisted that he had everything under control, that the team would definitely approach the playoffs ready for the championship, that he had no problems with the club’s leaders. But the series against Avtomobilist, in which the Kazan team barely avoided a shameful defeat with a score of 0-4 and “got away” with one, but crushing victory in Yekaterinburg (5:0), showed that the predicted failure was inevitable.
“Avtomobilist” was head and shoulders stronger during the series and almost without any problems qualified for the next round. It’s interesting that after something like this, Zinetula Khaidarovich does not accept talk of resignation.
“»This is not the main thing. Why should I think about resignation. This defeat is unpleasant for me, this is the second time this has happened to me. I know certain reasons, which are also in games with Avangard, and this time, apparently, they played a cruel joke, they are unpleasant, of course, as a professional. I don’t like losing like that. CSKA also lost, the finalists were eliminated in the first round. There are always mistakes, the season was not smooth, it it was turbulent, we tried to correct the situation,” explained Bilyaletdinov.
But the authorities of the Republic of Tatarstan literally persuaded the experienced specialist to stay in his position on the team. Now I wonder what opinion they hold now. The same goes for the players. It is obvious that Ak Bars needs to rejuvenate its roster. Perhaps in the coming off-season the Kazan team will be seriously active in searching for new heroes who will fit the requirements of the new coach.