Traktor - SKA. Match day

Today on the 23rd of August, SKA will begin their 2016/2017 KHL campaign with a match against HC Traktor Chelyabinsk away.

During the summer, Traktor's fans have had to endure plenty of uncertainty, and their team has been shaken up. Previous leaders such as Anton Glinkin, Vyacheslav Osnovin and Andrei Popov have all taken their leave, while veteran forwards Michal Birner and Igor Mirnov have signed up with the Chelyabinsk outfit. Defensemen Kirill Koltsov and Nikolai Belov, the latter having won the KHL Gagarin Cup with SKA in 2015, have also joined Traktor, and with such high class players, they are sure to be a lot more competitive last season.

Alongside picking up famous faces, Traktor played in two pre-season tournaments. They won the first, winning all four games at the Chelyabinsk Region Governor's Cup, but came fourth in Magnitogorsk.

28 SKA players have made the trip to Chelyabinsk, with only defender Yegor Rykov missing out as a result of his Russian junior national team call-up. Our team is coming off the back of two triumphs at the Nikolai Puchkov tournament against HC Sochi and Severstal Cherepovets, and look in fine attacking form.

The Traktor - SKA match will begin inside the Arena Traktor, Chelyabinsk, at 17.00 Moscow time. KHL TV, Life78 and our website will broadcast the game live, and you can follow events on our official Twitter account.

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