Bleacher Report - Articles by Marat Ryndin

NHL Free Agents That Washington Capitals Should Be After

Marat Ryndin — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:46:05 -0400

Just like any hard core hockey fan I love nothing more than to play the role of general manager. At least when I'm not too busy playing the role of the coach or the owner.

With the NHL free agent market opening on July 1st here's whom I would ideally try to get into a Capitals jersey in order of my preference within a position.

With right wing Viktor Kozlov and center Sergei Fedorov leaving for the luscious green pastures of the KHL retirement community (also a reported destination of the much maligned and sparingly used center Michael Nylander) the Capitals main replacement needs are a first line right winger and a second line center.

Center

Henrik Sedin
By far the best center available.

Mike Cammalleri
By far the second best center available. Just one short of a 40-goal season with Calgary this past season makes him an extremely rare commodity. A bona fide goal scoring center.

Nik Antropov
A rare combination of size and skill, I believe, Antropov has more to give that what we have seen from him so far. I predicted that he'd be a good rental signing for the Rangers at the end of this past season and he did not disappoint.

Reportedly Nik wants a lot of money. If I were to paraphrase the Rangers GM Glenn Sather he asked his agent to come down from the clouds a bit after receiving his first contract extension proposal.

Saku Koivu
Saku is getting a bit long in the tooth and has been injury prone in recent years, but he is the best center out there if the Capitals are unable to sign the top three on this list.

At 34 he can still be very effective as a second line center, which is what the Capitals need with the departure of Sergei Fedorov and Michael Nylander seemingly not figuring in the team's plans.

Stephane Yelle, Michael Zigomanis
The last two on the centers list are players of limited value and are not really someone I would consider candidates for a second line center, but are excellent on face-offs, good checkers and can be had for a bowl of soup in comparison to the ones I listed above them.

Right Wing

Marian Gaborik
While injury prone Gaborik is still one of the most dynamic forwards in the NHL at any position as he proved once again when he rushed his comeback from injury to try and get the scoring challenged Minnesota Wild into the playoffs this past season.

Despite being at only about 85% (according to himself) he absolutely tore it up for 23 points in just 17 games, including 13 goals. If that is what Gaborik can do playing for the Wild imagine what numbers he can put up as a first line right wing alongside Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom.

He might come with a bit of a discount considering his history of injuries even though this discount will be akin to the discounts you might see at a Hugo Boss store.

Marian Hossa
Not much needs to be said about Marian Hossa. Despite a bit of a disappearing act in this season's Stanley Cup final you won't find a better right winger in this crop of NHL free agents.

This guy can do it all and can be the perfect foil for Ovechkin who is not big on playing defense. The prospect of playing alongside the Great 8 on an exciting young team which should be able to challenge for the Cup next year might be quiet enticing to Marian.

Martin Havlat
A player with the hands of gold who showed his toughness and hard nosed nature in this season's playoffs. If we can't sign Gaborik or Hossa he's by far the next best choice.

Alexei Kovalev
An embodiment of the term "enigmatic Russian" Kovalev is still one of the most skilled players in the game and just young enough to be of value.

Uniting him with the Capitals merry band of young Russians might be just what the doctor ordered for this professional hockey player / amateur pilot. If you're still skeptical think of it this way. Could he be at least as effective at Big Vik was? I think so.

Richard Zednik

Reportedly off to the KHL, yet the Capitals just might be able to entice this former Cap back to Washington after a season that should have probably earned him the comeback player of the year award after a near death experience.

Brian Gionta
A player who has overcome his diminutive size to be a very effective NHL winger and still has speed to burn. 20 goals in New Jersey could easily turn into 30 or more playing with Ovechkin and Backstrom in the Caps run and gun system. He can certainly keep up with those two.

Tomas Kopecky
One of those players that no one outside of Detroit knows about he has been used more as a spare part on the deepest team in the NHL, but possesses the skills of a top six winger, in my opinion.

Max Afinogenov
Finally we come to the part of the program where the picking are becoming really slim. Max is an incredibly skilled, but just as incredibly under achieving player who can look like the most exciting winger in the game one night and pull the invisible man act for the next ten.

I still can't help, but like him and think that he could be an interesting reclamation project for the Capitals due to their playing style and the abundance of Russians.

Due to under achieving he could also be one of those shiny things you find in a bargain bin at your local department store.

Reportedly, he's off to the KHL as well.

Miroslav Satan
Signed by Pittsburgh this past season as a possible winger for either Sidney Crosby or Yevgeniy Malkin he did not exactly work out as planned, but we saw flashes of what he can do when given more of a chance in the playoffs due to some injuries.

Miro is still a highly skilled player albeit with some motivational issues, but at this depth I would take him.

Ales Kotalik
Still relatively young and skilled. Good speed and shot.

Petr Sykora
See Miroslav Satan above.

Mark Parrish
Still has the hands to clean up the garbage around the net (hat trick in his first game for Dallas this year) might be a Filene's Basement type bargain for our first line and willing to go to the net.

Left Wing

We don't really need one, but if we could sign one of these I'm sure we could find some use for them.

Daniel Sedin
Alex Tanguay

Defense

Jay Bouwmeester
Everything that could have possibly been written about him has already been written. At least ten times.

It's highly unlikely that we could get him considering that Calgary just gave up a good roster player plus a draft pick for the sheer privilege of talking to him before anyone else gets to (frankly an insane move, in my opinion) and we already have Mike "Lambogreenie" Green.

Still, he is available and as such I have no choice, but to put him at the top of my defense list.

Michael Komisarek
Quite overrated, in my opinion, yet might be exactly what the Capitals need in terms of toughness. Yes, he did get his bootie kicked by Milan Lucic on multiple occasions, but not many non-enforcers in the NHL would even dare dropping the gloves with the Bruins man child.

Consider him an improved John Erskine-2009 model.

Dennis Seidenberg
No one ever talks about this player which, in my opinion, makes him very underrated. Dennis has good offensive skills, can skate, pass the puck, play the point on the power play and has a heavy shot. The Capitals could do a lot worse.

Johnny Oduya
An excellent offensive minded defenseman who, just as Seidenberg, doesn't get the attention he deserves.

Sergei Zubov
Zubov has been talking about retirement after missing most of this past season with injuries, which is the only reason he's so low on my list. Everyone knows what he can do when healthy.

Rob Blake
Blake was one of the best free agent signings of this past season rediscovering his offensive abilities at the ripe age of 39. He will be 40 this season, but he might still be effective in a limited role (especially on the power play).

Robert Scuderi
Scuderi was excellent in this year's playoffs. Just in time to get everyone to notice him at the end of his contract. A good defensive defenseman.

Filip Kuba
This guy can really pass the puck. Power play specialist.

Karlis Skrastins
Another underrated player, the Latvian moved his way up the pecking order in Florida and was used in all situations. Good defensively with some limited offensive skills.

Dmitriy Kalinin
A highly skilled Russian can thrive in the right situation.

Martin Skoula
Nick Boynton
Rhett Warrener
Ossi Vaananen

Goalie

Don't need one.

Some readers may roll their eyes at some of my choices, but those should mostly be my depth picks. That is to say that I would sign these players only if the Capitals couldn't get their paws on anyone I listed above them.

Why the Rangers Will Lose Game Seven and Other Fun Facts

Marat Ryndin — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 12:55:45 -0400

The New York Rangers are stuck in the past.

When will the Rangers, starting with their GM and going down to their fans, will finally realize that the strategy of trying to buy a Stanley Cup by signing overpriced, overrated free agents is long gone?

They have heard of the salary cap, right?

The Rangers coaches and players talk about how they have to try and shut down Alex Ovechkin, Nick Backstrom, Alexander Semin, and Mike Green, yet when the Capitals players and coach talk you never hear them say how we have to try and shut down Scott Gomez, Chris Drury, Markus Naslund and Nik Zherdev.

Why? Because that would sound like a joke.

All the Rangers fans can do after Game 6 is whine about Brashear's hit. It was a clean shoulder check, by the way, for anyone who's not blinded by Rangers bias.

Keep your head up, kid.

Yet do we ever hear about all the goonery the Rangers produced in this series?

Apparently, punching and high sticking after the whistle and blatantly trying to injure one of our best players late in games is perfectly fine.

Did I mention their coach, John Tortorella, after preaching discipline to his players in the aftermath of Game 4, completely lost it and threw objects and waved a stick at Capitals fans?

What's the word I'm looking for? Oh yeah, hypocrisy.

Since I am not like you, I will admit that Brashear's hit was a bit late, but that's all. The hit itself was clean. I would encourage you to watch the replays, but only after taking your Rangers colored goggles off. Also, it's the first questionable incident from the Capitals side.

The fact is that the Capitals have been way too nice to the Rangers in this series. They don't slap the Rangers goalie around simply for playing well, or high stick players who missed almost two full seasons due to concussion syndrome, after the whistle. They don't run the Rangers best players into the boards from behind, or close line them late in games they don't have a chance to win.

Perhaps it's because there haven't been any games the Capitals had no chance to win in this series. By sheer luck, plus a giant dose of help from Jose Theodore in Game 1, and Henrik Lundqvist standing on his head in Games 2 and 4 the Rangers somehow squeaked out three wins against a clearly superior Capitals team.

The Rangers luck has most definitely run out. After the Capitals finish them off tomorrow night maybe their so called stars can go help their respective countries in the IIHF World Championship which just started on Friday, that is, if anyone actually wants them. Perhaps they can swing a quick change of citizenship and play for Austria or Hungary.

Simeon Varlamov's Success Not Surprising To Those In the Know

Marat Ryndin — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:22:57 -0400

I am happy to see people finally realize just how good Simeon Varlamov is. As a frequent poster on Tarik El-Bashir's excellent Capitals Insider blog, I've touted him consistently since before the season even started and was often ridiculed. I feel vindicated now.

The reason I was so confident in his ability is simply because I saw him play much more than most Capitals fans. He's performed brilliantly in top level international tournaments for Russia, as well in last year's Russian Super Liga, which was an excellent league (and a predecessor to this year's KHL).

It is extremely rare that a 19-year old becomes a number one goalie in the Russian league, and Varly was not just a No. 1, but a starter on a very good Lokomotiv Yaroslavl club that finished second overall in the regular season.

The team went all the way to the finals of the RSL playoffs before falling to what is, in terms of depth of talent, the Russian version of the Detroit Red Wings, Salavat Yulayev of Ufa.

I got annoyed when people disregarded this experience without having ever seen even one game from the Russian league and dismissing it as some beer league. As a logical person, it is very strange for me how many people can judge something they know absolutely nothing about. But I digress.

I've been saying all along that Varlamov is a special kid, very mature for his age, and I've been waiting for the Capitals' excellent coach, Bruce Boudreau, to give him a real chance, especially in light of Theodore impersonating an antique night stand in the Capitals net all year (if the puck doesn't accidentally hit him, it's going in).

I have always known that Varlamov is a much better goalie, regardless of his age and lack of NHL experience. I believe that if things like who gets to play were always based on merit only he would have become our No. 1 goalie long ago.

Boudreau, whom I greatly admire, felt obligated to keep giving Jose Theodore chance after chance to "bounce back" simply because he was our expensive free agent designated No. 1 (similar to the reason Jean-Sebastian Giguere got 1,001 chances to prove that he's not the goalie he used to be before the Ducks finally gave the reigns to Jonas Hiller).

I think that Boudreau knew a while ago just how much better Varly is. Finally, after game one of the playoffs, in which Theodore was single-handedly responsible for tagging the Capitals with a loss, he decided that he can't keep putting Theo's personal happiness above the team anymore because we'd be bounced right out of the playoffs by a far inferior team.

(No disrespect to the Rangers, it just happens to be true.)

My supreme confidence in Varlamov only seemed silly to those who didn't see him play as much as I have, which, when it comes to Capitals fans, was probably somewhere around 99.9 percent.

Simeon is also proving another one of my observations correct. Theodore has never been the victim of the Capitals' bad defense. Rather the Capitals' defense has been the victim of Theodore. Jose's defenders (like Olie Kolzig's defenders last year) kept finding every excuse in the book and blaming the defense.

I've always held that any good goalie would have very good stats playing for this team just by virtue of the Capitals spending most of their time in the offensive zone. Their defense is already better than that of most teams.

By virtue of a goalie not letting in soft goals or controlling shots—by either catching them or sending hard rebounds to the boards—it's even better because they're not under constant barrage of second chances for the opposition.

Cristobal Huet already proved this fact last year, and any goalie other than Theodore that's been in this year (Brent Johnson, Michal Neuvirth and Simeon Varlamov) was proving it also, yet some people were not convinced. Maybe now they will finally see the light.

Like a well behaved Rangers guest to Tarik's blog has said, the Capitals are absolutely scary with a stud goalie in net. Knowing that the Capitals had a great young goalie yet were playing a washed up old night stand instead has been the most frustrating thing about the Capitals to me this season.

Goaltending was our No. 1 problem all year, and we had a solution to it either sitting on the bench or playing in the minors.

After all, even before the season started, I was adamant that the Capitals did not need to sign Theodore at all because I believed Varlamov was ready. I pretty much got laughed at by some of the people who consider themselves experts.

Now that Varlamov has given the Capitals what they've been missing all year it seems that nobody is laughing anymore.

Now, if only there was a way for the Capitals to buy out the second year of Theodore's contract. Otherwise, they will have a backup with a $4.5 million cap hit because once this year's playoffs are over, Varlamov will establish himself as the Capitals starter, ideally, with a cheap Brent Johnson as the veteran cover.

Lastly, if the Capitals were one of the top teams in the NHL this season not because, but despite Theodore, now that they have a real No. 1 goalie, how good are they?

The obvious answer is that they're much better than before, and that should be a scary thought for their opposition.

Before game two of the series, I predicted that if Varlamov starts in place of Theodore, he will give the Capitals every chance to dispose of the Rangers and go deep in the playoffs.

He has done exactly that by allowing just a single goal in his first two NHL playoffs starts. Unfortunately, his teammates could not provide any goal support for him in game two, but now that the Capitals offense seems to be back to firing on all cylinders, they should not have too much trouble overturning what is now just a 2-1 series deficit.

Stanley Cup Playoffs: First Round Predictions

Marat Ryndin — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 10:17:34 -0400

Since I'm a total hockey nut it's a bit of an annual tradition for me to make predictions for every round just before it starts, but this is the first time I'm doing it on Bleacher Report.

Don't have too much time to write this so apologies if it's not up to my usual level in terms of writing, but I just want to get it out there.

EAST

Boston over Montreal

Won't be as easy as Bruins fans think, just like Montreal's win last year wasn't as easy as most people thought it would be. I think this will go six or seven games. The only way it won't is if Montreal's goaltending falls apart which is very possible since they have a huge question mark there.

Their extremely talented kid goalie Price has been chasing skirts and boozing it up way too much according to many reports and has been downright awful the second half of the regular season.

If I were Montreal I'd go with Jaroslav Halak who manages to get wins even when the other team gets nearly 50 shots on him. The Bruins have a definite edge on goal and on defense, but Montreal has extremely talented group of forwards which, if they play up to their potential, could be dangerous.

Washington over NY Rangers

Capitals are a much better team, but in a goalie match-up of Theodore vs. Lundqvist the Rangers have a clear advantage with King Henrik. This makes me extremely nervous as a Caps fan.

I've been hoping that Theo would get injured (I know, absolutely terrible) so that we'd be forced to start our 20-year old Russian rookie Simeon Varlamov who IMO is much better. Maybe if Theo bombs early Boudreau will be forced to make the switch anyway and it won't be too late for us to pull it out.

Philadelphia over Pittsburgh

Can go either way. Should be a great series to watch even for a neutral since it'll be an absolute war as these teams hate each other's guts. Most likely a seven-game series.

It's a tough pick, but I'm going with the Flyers because they're tougher and have more balanced scoring (7 20+ goal guys, I think) as opposed to Pittsburgh who still rely too much on Crosby and Malkin.

Having said that, since the trade deadline during which they did a great job addressing balanced scoring the Pens have been sizzling hot and Malkin & Crosby are superstars who can move mountains.

Crap, I think I just convinced myself that the Penguins should win. Oh well, I'm gonna stick with my original pick.

New Jersey over Carolina

Can go either way. A lot will depend on goaltending. Is Brodeur gonna be the Marty we saw right after he returned from injury or the one we saw at the end of the season? Is Ward gonna be the Conn Smythe winning Ward of a couple of years ago when Carolina won the Cup?

He had an excellent run at the end of the regular season and is entering the playoffs full of confidence. The Devils were one of the best teams all year, but tanked at the end while Carolina is coming into the playoffs as one of the hottest teams in the whole league.

Carolina is a lot of fun to watch for a neutral since they play an up tempo, very aggressive attacking style similar to the Capitals so I'll be cheering for the Canes.

WEST

San Jose over Anaheim

This has developed into a great rivalry out West and is gonna be an absolute war, so a great series to watch for a neutral. Anaheim has a huge question in goal since Giguere lost his starting job to Hiller right at the end of the regular season...and IMO should have lost it long before that.

Sharks, on the other hand, have one of the best goalies in the world in Nabokov. That should do it. If you like brawls you might see a few in this one. I'll be cheering for the Sharks as they've been one of my favorite teams ever since they came into the NHL and knocked out Detroit in one of the greatest playoff upsets ever.

Anaheim is one of the dirtiest bunch of jackasses in the league, and I hate them almost as much as the Flyers.

Detroit over Columbus

Just like in the Caps-Rangers series Detroit is a better team...much better, in fact, but the goalie edge goes to Columbus provided their sensational rookie Steve Mason who was almost single-handedly responsible for getting them into the playoffs doesn't crap his pants in his first playoff experience.

Might be a tough series for Detroit to win provided Mason stands on his head like he did all year. I love the way Detroit plays, but I might be pulling for the underdog here. Mason is an amazing story and worth the price of admission if you like to watch mind boggling saves by a goalie with a Superman cape around his neck.

When I watch him play I find myself constantly exclaiming, "He just did whaaat?! There's no fucking way he saved that!!!" Contrast this with the Swiss cheese the Red Wings have for goalies and we might get a long series out of this one.

Vancouver over St.Louis

It's an absolute miracle that the Blues got in considering their roster and a boatload of injuries (major props to their coach), but Vancouver is just too strong for them and Chris Masons's excellent goaltending will be matched by one of the leagues star goalies, his majesty Roberto Luongo.

The only chance the Blues have is if Chris Mason plays lights out for them in net and they can manage a few timely goals. Their offense is clearly outmatched by the Canucks.

Chicago over Calgary

This was definitely one of the toughest predictions to make. Both teams are very good. Calgary is tough as nails and has a great goalie in Kiprusoff, but Chicago is an up and coming team loaded with young talent.

If their kids don't crap their pants in their first playoff experience, this could be a seven-game war and another great matchup for a neutral to watch.

Possibility for lots of brawls in this one also. Great to see Chicago back in the playoffs. Their stadium should be absolutely rocking.

Counterpoint: Today's NHL Better Than Before

Marat Ryndin — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 06:31:09 -0500

I'm very puzzled about the constant talk from hockey fans about how the NHL was better before the recent rule changes than it is today. Did you really enjoy watching clutch and grab, dead puck era hockey more than a skilled, fast game of today?

I, for one, have been a huge hockey fan since childhood and religiously followed the NHL after coming over to the United States from Europe, but I dropped out of following the league because I couldn't deal with whatever it was the NHL players were playing in the dead puck era. Barely any shots on goal, very few scoring chances, lots of low-scoring games filled with drudgery, grinding out results. That wasn't hockey to me.

I find it really sad so many North American fans perceive hockey simply as a goon sport in which highly-skilled players are constantly harassed, hooked, pulled, and grabbed by marginal players who are barely good enough to be in the league. I love hitting and physical play, but I also enjoy hockey for the lightning quick, highly skillful, end-to-end, incredibly exciting game it becomes when it's played right.

To me, today's brand of NHL hockey is infinitely better and more exciting to watch. The skilled players are allowed to do what they do best and there is much more flow to the game, many more scoring chances, great plays, and lots of extremely talented and skillful young stars (Ovechkin, Malkin, Crosby, Kane, Toews, Semin and many others). I'm back to being a die-hard fan of the NHL.

The hitting and fighting is still there. It has not disappeared as many North American hockey fans seem to suggest. In fact, fighting is up significantly this year from the last few according to hockeyfights.com. In 2005-06, the first year after the NHL lockout, 276 NHL players dropped the gloves throughout the season. This season, 575 of 1230 games in, 272 players have already picked up a fighting major.

I would also argue the lack of hooking and interference has resulted in many more hard checks. Hence so many injuries to defensemen all around the league, for example.

The skilled players of yesteryear agree with my opinion, as well. I've seen countless interviews with the best players of the dead puck era who said that they'd love to play in today's NHL and that the game is now much improved. The most recent example of such an opinion being Mike Gartner, whose jersey was recently retired by the Washington Capitals.

However, it seems most of the so called "die-hard" North American fans of the game prefer goonery to skill with incessant talk of the "good old days" when constant hooking, holding, slashing, and interference with players not in the possession of the puck went unpunished. The days when to get a penalty you had to come dangerously close to practically raping someone.

I find that to be very sad.

KHL Weekly Round-Up

Marat Ryndin — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 18:11:18 -0400

Every Friday there's now a new show on Russian TV called "Hokkey Rossii" which can be translated as "Russian Hockey" or more accurately "Hockey of Russia" (even though it sounds weird to us for some reason).

This week's show's main theme was the discussion on whether the KHL needs enforcers. Tons of Russian league fights were shown while the two pundits in the studio debated the question. The debate got so heated that at one point the host of the show was close to losing control of the situation almost resulting in the commercial break not being shown! The horror.

Alas, order was restored, the commercials went ahead as planned (you can now move off the edge of your seat), no one in the studio was physically harmed, and the mobile fan poll produced the results slightly in favor of the skating pugilists (by about 5%).

We figure that fan poll results were a bit skewed due to the fact that none of the old farts who would have surely voted against the imported bourgeoisie penchant for fisticuffs have learned how to use the texting feature on their mobile devices yet.

During the impromptu poll of KHL coaches only Andrei Nazarov of Traktor Chelyabinsk (predictably) was in favor of adding some Hanson brothers action to the KHL while Slava Bykov (note to the Canadian announcers - it is NOT pronounced Bye-kof), the head coach of CSKA Moscow, wondered out loud what the term "policeman" has to do with hockey.

I know of the following positions in hockey. Center, left wing, right wing, defenseman and goaltender. Last I checked the position of policeman does not exist in hockey and is from another field called law enforcement.

Touche, Mr. Bee-kof, touche.

Now we're not sure who won the studio brouhaha since the debaters did not resort to fisticuffs and we always have a difficult time determining the winner of a debate when violence isn't used as an argument. What we'd like to see is Don Cherry invited to such a debate next time. We'd like to see someone put a fist to where Don's big mouth is.

Oh yeah, they did show some actual hockey on the program, as well. Here are the Top Five KHL Goals of the Week as determined by Vladimir Putin himself.

Okay, we're not really sure if Putin picks the top five goals, but everyone in the West seems to think that he's in charge of every single aspect of Russian life so we'll just pretend that it's true. Good work, Vladi! Who are we to disagree with Mr. Putin after all? We just blog.

If you're a fan of seeing someone's face smashed into the boards (and we know you are, you sick, sick bastards) here's a video of Spartak Moscow's Alexei Akifyev painting the boards with his blood during the Moscow derby against the Red Army club courtesy of CSKA's defenseman, Denis Kulyash. Kulyash sounds almost like goulash to us and in Russia it is apparently a dish better served cold.

Last year's RSL champions Salavat Yulayev of Ufa finished the first two weeks of their KHL adventure with a perfect record of 4-0 and seemingly have not broke a sweat yet, even in games against top level opposition (like Jaromir Jagr's Avangard Omsk). 6-0 was the result of that "battle of the titans." We have a question for Rangers fans. Is it time to question Jagr's leadership qualities yet?

Do keep your eye on Metallurg Novokuznetsk's 16-year-old phenom Maxim Kitsyn who scored three goals in his first two KHL games. His team is off to a surprisingly good start and we're very impressed with a high school age kid doing his thing at the KHL level. Not to mention the fact that at just 16 the boy towers over most men in the league.

Dinamo Riga finally returned home after a brutal five-game road trip to the Far East to start the season (we think Sarah Palin might have even seen their two games vs. Amur Khabarovsk from Alaska, which no doubt now makes her an expert on Russian hockey) and played to a full crowd at Arena Riga. This marked a historic occasion as the famous Latvian club was resurrected as a KHL franchise after a decade of extinction (if only the dinosaurs were so lucky).

They celebrated with a 2-1 win over Hokkeynyi Klub Ministerstva Vnutrennikh Del Balashikha (Moskovskaya Oblast)... sheesh, we are fluent in Russian and that was a mouthful even for us. Okay, you can just call it HK MVD Moscow Region.

On the other hand, Barys Astana, another non-Russian KHL club are yet to win at home in Kazakhstan. And no, Borat is not on their team. Perhaps that's the problem. We shall see.

Metallurg Magnitogorsk, lovably known as Magnitka, is off to a very slow start, even having suffered a 6-0 humiliation at the hands of Jagr's Avangard. The reigning European Cup champions will face the NHL's New York Rangers in the inaugural Victoria Cup come October 1st and on this form might not be the best representative of the KHL. If we were Putin we'd make an executive decision to replace them with Salavat Yulayev of Ufa.

SKA St. Petersburg is also having major issues and started the season far below expectations. After their last loss their head coach Barry Smith, in true Putin style, proclaimed, "I promise to the people of this great city we call St. Petersburg, that they will never see a second period like this from us ever again!"

"And if they do," he continued, "I will personally see to it that those responsible are held accountable!"

Wow, the chill has run down our spine. Russia is definitely rubbing off on Barry after just over a year. Must be the borscht.