Sweden
SHL
Carl Grundström
There have been only two Frölunda games this week. In Thursday's game, the team looked very outmatched, but managed to get a goal from their depleted scoring lines—they have two forwards serving suspensions. They tied the game midway in the third and then they got a win in a very unusual way. HV71, with their goalie pulled on a delayed penalty call to Frölunda near the end of the game, put it in their own net on a bad pass that just never stopped sliding.
The highlights of that game are here if you want to see either that or Grundström looking less than great defensively on HV71's second goal. He is still struggling in this early part of the season.
Frölunda play again today, and move onto CHL action later in the week.
Allsvenskan
Jesper Lindgren
MODO only played one game this week, and they managed a win! Lindgren didn't figure in the game in any significant way, but I can report they were put out of their hotel and had to go stay in the suburbs because of a Justin Bieber concert right next door to the arena in Stockholm. Sorry, MODO for exporting this scourge.
Highlights of this game show #7, Lindgren watching a couple of goals get scored against, but he makes one good defensive play.
Pierre Engvall
I caught the three-on-three of Engvall's game on Saturday. He was, to put it mildly, terrible. He started with one, possibly deliberate, offside pass in one of the few moments Mora had gained the offensive zone. When the recipient backed up while the other two got onside, Engvall went off on a change and nearly bowled the man over in his desire to get to the bench.
On his next shift, why he had one, I don't know, Mora was defending four-on-three on the PK, and he made a halfhearted effort to clear the puck and batted it right to an opposing player.
Maybe he's playing too many minutes (21 in that game) and the gas tank was empty, but that was a terrible display of badly brained hockey. He is playing a fairly even six minutes per game, more than Lindgren gets as a defenceman.
In the previous game of the week, he had one assist on the game winning goal in a 5-3 win. But having watched the highlights (he is #10) it's not so much an assist as he stands around ineffectually fumbling at the puck until the goal scorer takes it away and scores.
Not his week.
Russia
KHL
Vladimir Bobylyov
He had a great week! The pace in the KHL is a lot tougher than in Sweden, and they are almost one quarter done the season.
Spartak played four games including one last Sunday, and Bobylyov saw his ice time climb from six minutes in last weekend's game to 15 in Saturday's contest against Kunlun Red Star.
In Thursday's game against Avtomobilist, he got his first goal.
On Saturday, he managed to get into a shoving match in a one-goal game in the final minutes. There were offsetting minors however. Spartak outshot Red Star 48 - 15 and still lost, but right at the end of a game like that is not when you want to do this:
We'll see if he keeps his increased ice time.
Yegor Korshkov
Lokomotiv began their week with a heartbreaking loss in OT to Dynamo Moscow. Korshkov's line were good, and he set up this goal by Alexander Polunin, but the team let a lead evaporate into a win for the other side, something they do too much.
Their second game was an easy win for the good guys in a very dull affair where Max Talbot scored twice, continued to increase Russian awareness of the finer points of the French language, and Polunin got an undeserved penalty shot that he scored on easily.
Lokomotiv play again today, and Korshkov and his boys seem to be rolling, but the team could use some tighter systems if they want to win against the top teams in the playoffs.
Korshkov already has a goal and an assist in the game today, and it’s only half over. Here’s his shorthanded goal:
VHL/MHL
Nikolai Chebykin
Where in the world is Nikolai Chebykin?
It's an adventure finding where he pops up. He stayed in the VHL for the whole week, playing in three games where his ice time dropped from 16 minutes per game to 10 in Saturday's match.
He went pointless on the week.
Was he riding a hot streak before? Or was this just the usual bump in the road? Next week we'll find out if he stays up with the big club or goes back to junior hockey.
