Russian hockey fans are in for several fiery confrontations in the coming days. Traktor will host Metallurg, Moscow Dynamo will play against Spartak, Ak Bars will fight with CSKA. At the same time, some teams lost their head coaches before matches with key rivals. The reasons for the mass layoffs are not entirely obvious.

What happened in Russian hockey?

Gru burned out

The dismissal or voluntary resignation of a coach from his post is commonplace in modern hockey. However, when several resignations occur in the league in one day, it is difficult to ignore. This is exactly the situation that happened in Russian hockey on Monday. Several specialists immediately lost their positions.

A day after Traktor’s devastating defeat in the home match against Avtomobilist, Benoit Groux left the post of head coach of the Chelyabinsk team. Last season, under the leadership of a Canadian specialist, the Urals reached the final of the Gagarin Cup. What will happen in this is still a mystery. In the near future, the Chelyabinsk team will try to lead Raphael Richer to victories.

It’s not to say that Traktor has been a complete failure lately: sixth place in the East, and the gap from most competitors is not critical. But here the initiator, apparently, was the head coach himself. As a source told Match TV, Gru decided to end the next stage of his coaching career officially “for family reasons”, and unofficially due to the fact that he simply burned out. Later, the 57-year-old specialist himself took the floor, declaring fatigue.

“I have decided to resign as head coach of Traktor.” Lately, I no longer see myself as the person who should lead the team. I feel extremely tired – both mentally and physically. Over time, this became a problem for me,” Traktor’s press service quotes Gru as saying.

“An Unexpected Moment”

Alexey Kudashov might still have worked at Dynamo Moscow. At least, the Russian specialist himself did not publicly complain about fatigue. But here the club has already taken the initiative, deciding to replace the 54-year-old specialist, who has led the team since April 2021, with one of his assistants, Vyacheslav Kozlov.

“Dynamo thanks Alexey Nikolaevich for his work and wishes the specialist success in his coaching career and future endeavors,” the press service of the “blue and white” noted in a statement.

Alexey Kudashov / Photo: © KHL / Dmitry Kulinich

Although two-time Olympic hockey champion Vyacheslav Fetisov believes that there were reasons for the dismissal, from the outside they do not seem so obvious. Dynamo is in fifth place in the West and won the previous match.

— To be honest, it’s very difficult for me to comment on this, because Dynamo won seven in the last ten games. You need to have some nuances about what is happening within the team. I don’t have these nuances, so this is a bit of an unexpected moment for me,” former head coach of the Russian national hockey team Vladimir Plyushchev told Match TV.

“The reasons were not explained”

Another very unexpected dismissal occurred on the coaching staff of the Western Conference leader Lokomotiv. Head coach Bob Hartley remained at his post, but one of his assistants, Dmitry Ryabykin, was fired. At the same time, he doesn’t know why.

— This happened on Monday, when I was summoned to the president of the club, Yuri Yakovlev. They informed me that they were terminating their employment relationship with me. The reasons were not explained, and I did not ask myself. For what? – Ryabykin told Match TV.

Later, the press service of the Yaroslavl team explained that the separation occurred “by mutual consent of the parties.” We can only assume that the parties came to an agreement without delving into the reasons for the dismissal.

Dmitry Fedorov / Photo: © KHL

On Monday there was another notable resignation in Russian hockey. True, not in the KHL, but in the Youth Hockey League (MHL). Former Match TV presenter and commentator Dmitry Fedorov, who graduated from the Higher School of Coaches in Moscow in 2021, left his job at the headquarters of Atlanta near Moscow. The club also did not say anything about the reasons for the dismissal, but they thanked the coach and wished him success in his future professional activities.

Watch live broadcasts of Fonbet KHL Championship matches on Match TV, as well as on the websites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.