For the first time this season, Ivan Demidov and SKA St. Petersburg are facing their first heavy dose of adversity with only one win in their previous seven games.
There will always be peaks and valleys in a professional sports season; no team is exempt from these moments.
Over in the KHL, SKA St. Petersburg began their season with just one win in their first four games before piecing together a four-game win streak to balance things out.
The club alternated wins and losses before rallying off a season-high seven-game win streak before the wheels fell off. Ahead of their contest on Monday against Amur, SKA St. Petersburg is amidst one of their worst stretches of hockey, with a single win in seven games.
Meanwhile, Montreal Canadiens prospect Ivan Demidov, who was the rookie of the month in September and dubbed the top prospect outside of the NHL by ESPN, is now pointless in the past six games.
Moreover, his ice time is back to under ten minutes per game, a trend fans saw in early October when he struggled and had no points in five games.
However, Demidov isn't the only one struggling right now. October's KHL Rookie of the Month, goalie Yegor Zavragin, has struggled since the calendar flipped to November. After recording eight wins last month, he's 1-5 in his previous six appearances with .919 SV%.
As expected, SKA St. Petersburg head coach Roman Rotenberg, no stranger to making controversial comments to the Russian media, called out his team after their latest loss.
Interestingly, the team's next game on Monday will be one to follow as SKA St. Petersburg skates against the KHL's last-place team, Amur. Their opponents enter the contest with a 5-21 record and a goal differential of minus 40, the third-worst total in the league. Demidov started the game on SKA's fourth line.
As mentioned earlier, teams will have ups and downs throughout the regular season. Right now, SKA St. Petersburg, along with Demidov, is in a deep funk. With a favorable matchup on tap, there's a chance to right the ship and return to the win column.
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