Athletistic / Hockey. Famous Russian coach Andrei Nazarov commented on the elimination of last year’s two finalists from the 2024 Gagarin Cup. In the first round of the KHL playoffs, CSKA and Ak Bars suffered failures.
“March 8 turned out to be a very interesting and eventful day in the KHL. Three series of the first round of the playoffs ended at the same time. With all due respect to CSKA and Ak Bars, we see now that these teams need restructuring, they have exhausted their resources.
Now young people are taking the lead in the KHL, they are the ones who began to set the tone in our hockey, which is good news. In general, the most active age in hockey is 23-29 years old, but in Russia there are also younger guys who are already capable of producing results. All this suggests that the rejuvenation path set by the Russian president is bearing fruit. The national project “Youth of Russia” is now very relevant and important for the present and future of our Motherland,” Nazarov said at the Championship.
After five matches, CSKA lost to Lokomotiv from Yaroslavl (1-4 in the series) and Ak Bars lost to Avtomobilist from Yekaterinburg with a score of 1-4.
Last season, CSKA defeated Ak Bars in the 2023 Gagarin Cup final with a score of 4-3 in the series. Note that the army team won in the previous two seasons.
Source: Sport
I’m Emma Smith, a dedicated journalist and avid storyteller. I have been writing for news websites for the past 5 years, reporting on hockey news and delivering in-depth analysis of the sport. In my current role as Author at Athletistic, I write about hockey events from around the world to keep followers up-to-date with what’s happening in the sport.
