In a league where you can get terminated after only five games, a second chance is not only rare, its precious.
Let’s set the scene at the start of this tale. There was a time, early in the season, that SKA St. Petersburg set the record for not only KHL for most consecutive wins at the start of the season, but also for an all-time Russian record after beating Atlant on the 26 of September this year. The rattled off 11 straight wins to start the year. Spearheaded by their starting goaltender, Alexander Salák was head over heels in victory. With Ilya Yezhov in Lada, Salák was in prime position to keep SKA on top of the table and lead them towards a Gagarin Cup bid.
Yet, SKA’s season took a dreadful turn. After a disastrous road trip which caused the head coach, Vyacheslav Bykov to release a video asking for fans patience through the tough time, a tough away schedule that included the 3rd place Jokerit and an away game with CSKA Moscow, SKA fell down to 2nd in the KHL and CSKA ran away on top of the league. Lost in the talks of injuries, regression and throwing the word overrated about, was the goaltenders, Yevgeni Ivannikov and Alexander Salák. Ivannikov had put a boot in Salák’s back and took over the starting job in the majority of the road trip games. Salák, ripped from his starting position and placed on a five-six game tandem with Ivannikov, something he would later voice his dislike of after being traded.
Salák was under rather a lot of pressure with SKA. His final words when asked by Championat.com (12/12/14 about how hard the SKA martket was, he gave a rather chilling message: “If you understand hockey, this question does not require an answer.”
However, the collapse wasn’t due to Salák’s play. Starting at the trading away of veteran defenseman of Alexei Semenov and noted two way forward Igor Makarov, only to further escalate with more injuries that struck across SKA’s defensive lines, and culminating with KHL-assist-leading Vadim Shipychov’s injury a chain of unfortunate events hit SKA all at once. 20-year-old rookie, Alexander Barabanov, was called to hold the minutes on the first line and winger Ilya Kablukov was asked to play defense in a short lived experiment as SKA struggled to stay afloat. These events all came in the midst of a road trip schedule that placed the reigning champions, CSKA along with strong new comer from the Finnish league Jokerit, in front of Salák in a very small time frame. It was clear that both Salák and Ivannikov had very little help in front of them during this time. On the flipside, it is still important to note that these games weren’t exactly blowouts, SKA might have been outshot, but never blown out. The only one that could be considered lopsided was a 4-1 loss to Dynamo in which young goaltender Yevgeni Ivannikov had the starting reigns. Inevitably, Both goaltenders’ save percentages had barely hit above .900 and SKA was quite literally, in pieces.
Salák had hit rock bottom by this time. Silence fell surrounding him, and Ivannikov and Igor Shestyorkin were written down as goaltenders on the team’s lineup card night in night out. SKA had fallen down the standings and despite the fact that Salák had a .914 SV% and 2.39 GAA, he was shunned by the club, not even being asked to practice with the full roster. While save percentage and goals against average may not be perfect for analyzing a goalie, they do show that Salák was handling his duties at the time. It would seem that for the upper management of SKA, Salák was never seen as anything more than backup who couldn’t handle a standing role and choosing him over Ilya Yezhov was a grave error. Dramatics aside, everything inside the team had gone silent and the media and fans did not really know what was going on with Salák.
Rumours were aplenty, mind you. Perpetrated by Bykov’s post game comments after the SKA – Metallurg Novokuznetsk(27/11/14) match “We will probably cancel Alexander Salák’s contract,” combined with Salák’s wife who posted an auspicious Instagram video that did little other than throw more wood onto the fire that his contract had been terminated. His short lived tenure as star goaltender of St. Petersburg had gone and ended on a less than glamorous exit. As Salák reflected in the post trade “Do you think I played bad? We won 11 consecutive victories at the start, set a league record! I thought that everything was good and was going according to plan.” Such sentiments have also been echoed by the fans.
A ray of hope came for Salák in the form of one of the noisiest trades of the season. Rumours were flung left, right and centered on a deal between Sibir and SKA. Salák doesn’t want to play! Salák is a free agent! Everything is happening! The penny finally dropped and the dust settled. Sibir would send Mikko Koshiknen to St. Petersburg and get Salák in return. It seems a deal that works for all involved.
After 12 days of not practicing Alexander Salák was finally back on the ice, greated with a hero’s welcome. A banner welcoming him to the team was displayed for his first game, as he played the first game after the deal against Ugra. Salák and Sibir stormed up the standings winning 10 out of their next 11 games (with Salák winning all ten of his starts, Sibr’s only loss was in a penalty shootout in a game played by Nikita Bespalov). Salák became one of the key factors in dragging Sibir third from bottom to, at the time of writing, leading the Chernyshev division and second in the East, hot on the heels of Ak Bars. This run also included one shutout, a 32 save performance in a 4-0 win against Avangard and even included him being awarded an assist during the January 14th game against Lada. For a goaltender that has constantly battled consistency issues, his new starting role and tandem with Bespalov looks like a success.
The final question going ahead is; how can this ‘Hot Streak’ last? Could it even just be a streak we will see ended and an inevitable regression in play to follow? Will there be another SKA-like meltdown to plummet Sibir in the standings? Well obviously no one expects Salák to win his next ten starts, I do believe his strong play can continue. Sibir stand strong with little change other than the man in net and All-Star Patrik Hersley returning to the lineup. I guess Salák put it best in his post-trade interview, “We have a great team, and I believe that together with the Sibir we can reach to the Gagarin Cup.“ It’s going to be fun to see how far this team can go, from bottom of the table as they climb towards the top. Maybe, its a bit of a stretch, but could we enve see Salák’s soon-to-be born child sitting in the Gagarin Cup?
Thank you for reading. Please take a moment to follow me – @LWOSCirno. Support LWOS by following us on Twitter – @LastWordOnSport and @LWOSworld – and “liking” our Facebook page.
Have you tuned into Last Word On Sports Radio? LWOS is pleased to bring you 24/7 sports radio to your PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone. What are you waiting for?
Main Photo:
