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Ivan Demidov benched for almost half of his team’s game today

 Christopher Brown
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Ivan Demidov benched for almost half of his team’s game today
Credit: Getty Images
This morning, Ivan Demidov and the SKA were back in action. The youngster, whose playing time has been dwindling for some time now, had a reason to hope for a better fate today: Evgeny Kuznetsov was back in the line-up.

We know the two played together earlier this season.

That said, Roman Rotenberg didn’t see fit to reunite them: once again today, Demidov was his team’s 13th forward.

And clearly, the SKA coach wasn’t particularly keen on giving the young prodigy ice time at the start of the game: Demidov didn’t play a single second in the first period.

He spent the entire 20 minutes on the bench.

And in the second period, it took him a few minutes to get his first appearance. In fact, he finally got on the ice midway through the second period… and immediately started creating things.

The good news, however, is that he played a little more regularly afterwards. He got 2:33 of playing time in the second, and finished the game with 6:50 of ice time.

That’s no mean feat, but considering the context, it’s almost a miracle.

The other good news is that towards the end of the game, we saw Demidov playing more regularly with Evgeny Kuznetsov on the third line, including at the very end of the game when SKA needed to protect a lead. Will the chemistry between the two guys force Rotenberg to give Demidov more ice time? Let’s hope so.

Demidov did not earn a point in his team’s 5-2 victory. Obviously, the first half of the game is worrisome, but seeing him get regular minutes with Kuznetsov in the second half is already a little more reassuring.

Let’s see if this has any repercussions in the games to come.


Overtime

– Very cool.

– That’s a good one.

– It’s never too early to make a list of Hart contenders, right?

– A name to watch.

– Too bad.

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