There's Something Missing

On the clip of the game summary between today's KHL game thatb featured Jokerit and Ak Bars Kazan seen to the left, there's clearly something missing. As you're likely aware, every team must dress a backup goalie, but Kazan only has Igor Bobkov showing as a dressed netminder which would cause a serious issue if he were injured or needed to leave the game. Clearly, this would pose a huge problem, so let's spend a few moments investigating what was going on in this KHL game because, as you know, almost anything can happen in a KHL game.

It should be noted that Bobkov was the goalie of record in the 4-3 overtime loss that Kazan suffered today, so he played the entire game without issue. While that's good to hear for Kazan's sake, it still doesn't clear up the mystery as to why there is only one goalie dressed for Kazan. Let's dig into what happened here.

According to this news article on the KHL website,

"Six players from the visitors had been excluded from the team due to a one positive covid test that was given on Tuesday. Therefore, Ak Bars had to play only with three lines through the game. Also forward Dmitri Katelevsky had to serve as a back-up goaltender."

According to the Kazan roster, it would appear that those six players contained some or all of netminders Artur Akhtyamov, Timur Bilyalov, and/or Shamil Valiullin (who wears #68). Due to the restrictions placed on these six unknown players, they could not dress for the game against Jokerit and, as the passage states, the team has to get creative with forward Dmitri Katelevsky.

And there's visual proof of that creativity!

Власти Финляндии не допустили до сегодняшней игры вратарей Ахтямова и Валиуллина, защитника Хенкеля и нападающих Воронкова, Линдхольма и Уила. Они не соответствуют финскому санитарному регламенту 🤷‍♂️
Сыграем в урезанном варианте состава и с вратарём Кателевским в качестве бэкапа pic.twitter.com/kMviXT9yUz

— ХК Ак Барс (@hcakbars) September 29, 2021

Digging into the tweet, Ak Bars Kazan's social media representative wrote, "The Finnish authorities did not allow goalkeepers Akhtyamov and Valiullin, defender Henkel and forwards Voronkov, Lindholm and Uila to play today. They do not comply with Finnish health regulations (man shrugging emote) Let's play in a stripped-down version of the line-up and with goalkeeper Katelevsky as a backup", so it appears that two of the three netminders named above were affected by the COVID-19 restrictions placed on the team by Finnish authorities. Being that it's a road game for Kazan, carrying a fourth goalie would be rather unnecessary so it appears that Bilyalov was left at home.

If the game summary is correct (and I have no reason to suspect it isn't), Kazan oddly played with seven defencemen and ten forwards once Dmitri Katelevsky was in his goalie gear. Why I find this to be odd is that they had an extra defender, but played with three lines up front. Why not dress Mark Yanchevsky in the goalie gear (since he only played 4:50) and leave Katelevsky up front where someone can double-shift to make up a fourth full line?

It would appear that Kazan played from behind the entire game as they were down 1-0 and 3-1 at points in the game before tying the contest up, but Jesse Joensuu's penalty shot goal in overtime after Iiro Pakarinen drew a penalty sealed the win for Jokerit. Despite being dressed and ready for shots, Dmitri Katelevsky never got to make his KHL goaltending debut.

There's always some oddity happening in the KHL when it comes to weird situations and this is another one that needed some examination as Ak Bars Kazan played shorthanded, but still earned a point in the standings. Let's hope that no other teams will be forced into dressing skaters as goalies this season!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!