A preview for the KHL playoffs

20 Feb 2013 | Dennis Mende

After 52 regular season games 16 teams have qualified for the playoffs and start battling for Gagarin Cup on Wednesday. But also the other 10 teams of KHL have still some games in front of them during the first edition of the so called "Cup of Hope". We will inform you aswell about the outcome of this event. Here is a presentation of the playoff participants for you.

Western Conference

SKA St. Petersburg (1) - Atlant Moscow Oblast (8)

SKA were among the top teams in the West from the begin of the regular season. Despite this the mangement of SKA took the controversial decision to fire their head coach Milos Riha in November for his team's playing style and the fear of not reaching the season goals - at least according to the official version. His substitute became Jukka Jalonen from Finland who led them to their first ever win of the Continental Cup - the regular season championship of KHL - with 115 points in 52 games. Lockout stars Ilya Kovalchuk and Vladimir Tarasenko had a real impact on the team but the trio of imports Patrick Thoresen, Tony Mårtensson and Kevin Dallman compensated their loss very well when they had to leave for the start of the NHL season. The same goes for Ilya Ezhov who now is the new starting goalie after Sergei Bobrovsky returend to Columbus. With 182-116 goals the team had the best offense and the 4th best defense of the whole league. This makes them one of the top favourites not only for reaching the next round but also for winning the Gagarin Cup!

That Atlant made the playoffs is maybe the biggest surprise. The team had a huge deficit towards the 8th spot before they came back with 8 wins in their last 9 regular season matches to finnish one point ahead of Donbass Donetsk (72 pts). They lost their topscorer Nikolai Zherdev who was traded to Ak Bars Kazan but an amazing team spirit was more than an equal substitute for him. They stay the clear outsiders in the duel with SKA but with the momentum on their side everything is possible.

When both teams faced each other during the regular season SKA won twice but only 3-2 and 4-3.

CSKA Moscow (2) - Lev Prague (7)

CSKA belong to the teams who took most advantage of the lockout situation by signing several worldclass players. Now they could get the payback for it. With Pavel Datsyuk and Mikhail Grabovsky they lost two of their key offensive players after the start of the NHL season. Now the full weight lays on the brothers Alexander and Igor Radulov along with Yakov Rylov. Decisive for the best defense of the league could be their goalie Rastislav Stana who had averaged 1.76 goals against and a 93.4 save percentage.

Czech league newcomers Lev Prague were the surprise team at the start of the season when they were the top side in their division. In the second half of the season they freed themselves from a huge deep and qualified for the playoffs one matchday early. With Tomas Pöpperle being one of the leagues top goalies, we could see a hard fought low-scoring series between the two teams with a clear advantage for CSKA.

Dynamo Moscow (3) - Slovan Bratislava (6)

Dynamo Moscow lost top stars Alexander Ovechkin, Nicklas Bäckström and Leo Komarov due to the end of the lockout and this had a heavy impact on their play during and their results during the rest of the regular season. Their head coach Olegs Znaroks is well-known for his terrific playoff tactics which could give the team a huge advantage over league newcomers Slovan Bratislava. They were never in real danger of missing the playoffs and soon got used to the long travel in the league and the style of play, especially in front of their own sold out arena in Bratislava. On the paper current Gagarin Cup holders Dynamo should make it to the next round but Slovan are able for a miracle at any time.

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl (4) - Severstal Cherepovetes (5)

In the first season after the plane tragedy in September 2011, Lokomotiv Yaroslavl immidiately returned to the top teams of the league. They even have outsider chances to at least make the Conference finals. In the case of Lokomotiv more than anything lese the star is the team. The same goes for their opponents Severstal Cherepovets who played a convincing regular season and early qualified for the playoffs. A close series can be extected with a small advantage for Lokomotiv due to the higher amount of home matches.

Eastern Conference

Ak Bars Kazan (1) - Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk (8)

The two-time Gagarin Cup winners Ak Bars Kazan started with problems into the season just to finnish on top of the East during the last matchday. In this very experienced team there are lots of players who could score at any time and decide the match for their side. Alexei Morozov, Danis Zaripov, Ilya Nikulin, Niko Kapanen and Janne Pesonen are only few of the super stars the team has. Everything but at least reaching the Conference finals would be a huge disappointment for Ak Bars who together with SKA St. Petersburg are the big favourites for the league title.

Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk late won the race for the 8th spot in the East against Yugra Khanty-Mansiysk and they have not more than minimal chances in this series. Everything more than one win for them would be a huge surprise already.

Avangard Omsk (2) - Sibir Novosibirsk (7)

After a weak start into the season, Avangard soon dominated the East with a huge winning streak but in the last weeks they played rather disappointing hockey for a team that high positioned. With only one point in their last four matches they even lost the top position to rivals Ak Bars Kazan. This could turn out to be a terrible situation as Sibir Novosibirsk are a lot stronger than their position indicates. Much will depend on the ability of Avangard to stop Sibir's top duo Jori Lehterä and Jonas Enlund.

Traktor Chelyabinsk (3) - Barys Astana (6)

With their young super star Evgeny Kuznetsov as team leader Traktor Chelyabinsk were able to finnish the season as third in the East. The team is one of the secret favourites for the Gagarin Cup. In the goal they can count on the extremly successful Michael Garnett. His backups Vladislav Fokin and Andrei Mezin showed their class aswell.

For Barys their strenght at home could become a decisive factor. In the last three regular season matches they beat top teams Avangard Omsk, Dynamo Moscow and SKA St. Petersburg in Kazakhstan. The team is highly depended on their North American imports Brandon Bochenski, Nigel Dawes and Dustin Boyd though. If stopped, the opponents have an easy job. If not, they could easily fear a debacle.

Traktor should make it to the next round but a Barys success would not come completely out of the blue.

Metallurg Magnitogorsk (4) - Salavat Yulayev Ufa (5)

Metallurg Magnitogorsk's playoff qualification was based mostly on the quality that lockout stars Evgeny Malkin, Nikolai Kulemin and Sergei Gonchar added to the team. Since their departure the teams suffered a lot even against clear outsiders. This makes them highly depended on KHL topscorer Sergei Mozyakin (76 pts).

Salavat Yulayayev Ufa are won of these teams in KHL where a lot depends on the team spirit. They don't have any stars in their team which also could be an advantage as the weight lays on all players at the same time. On a good day they could roll over any other team in the league, on a bad day though the same could happen to them. After a season of many ups and downs they are in a similar situation as Metallurg. For both teams the first two games will be the key in this series.

You can follow the live ticker coverage of the playoff games at eurolivesores.com!