24.09.2008.
Preview of Dinamo Riga’s next opponent – Spartak Moscow.
There are enough signs that allow presuming that for Spartak this would be a more successful season than the few previous one. In the recent history of Russian hockey, this club hasn’t had much success to be proud of. It was only last season, when Spartak returnet to top flight from Highest League, to where it has been demoted already three times for the last ten years. It was a surprise to many that Spartak finished last regular campaign of Superleague in mid-table – in 11th place, and in playoffs very reluctantly gave way to St Petersburg SKA (2-3 in series). Besides, one has to point out that the team roster was put together at the very last moment before the start of the season and mainly from players, who wasn’t too interesting for other Superleague clubs.
During last season, Spartak not only gained a reputation of an uncompromising competitor, but also managed to strengthen its financial capacity. Club was quite noticeable dealer in the preseason market of free agents and actively added on its human resources. So team’s defense line now is fully reconstructed – only Leonid Kanareikin (son of the head coach of Atlant – Fedor Kanareikin) has survived from the last year. Young but already experienced defensemen were offered contracts – power style (225 min. of penalty time during 2006-07) Denis Baev from Traktor, Kiril Lyamin from Atlant, Adrey Zabolotnev from Dinamo Moscow and Slovakian Ivan Baranka, who spent his season in AHL playing for the farm club of NY Rangers.
Their attacking game already had some good performers (Maksim Ribin, Aleksandr Drozdetsky, Aleksey Akifev, Dmitri Upper and Yunkov brothers), but now they are joined by power link Branko Radivoevic and Stefan Ruzicka, who were the cornerstone of Philadelphia Flayers’ checking line in recent years.
This summer the team was also joined by two German national team players – forward Eduard Levandovski and goaltender Dmitri Kocnev. Both are USSR expats, and although they matured as players in the West, their roots should help and speed up the process of adaptation to Russia.
However, Kocnev together with another goalie Evgeni Lobanov got seriously injured right before the start of the season, so club had to urgently search for new nr. 1. Martin Prusek came in, having previously spent one season in Superleague with SKA St Petersburg.
For the task of putting Spartak together in a competitive force, club invited Czech coach Milos Rziga, who had time to draw conclusions from his controversial season at Voskresensk (2005-06). It is certain that Rziga leads a team of great potential and meanwhile manages to be hypocritical with media: ‘We are a small and modest tem.’
