Goddammit! Zorky Crushes Baikal 14-6

BOULDER, Colorado -- In the words of Carl Brutanananadilewski, I'm pissed. Not only was I unable to find a webcast of today's match in Krasnogorsk, but Baikal-Energia proceeded to lose to Zorky 14-6, dropping them to 0-2 in the playoff tournament.

I knew that the departure of the core of the team during the off-season, save Kadakin and Nasonov, meant that a league championship was out of the question, but this team continues to show itself incapable of playing well against good teams. To the latter's credit, he did manage four goals and an assist in this lopsided affair.

I suppose Baikal's season in many ways mirrors that of my favorite team here in North America, the Boston Bruins. While the Bruins play well enough to stay in the playoff hunt - and, like Baikal, if they make it in at all it will be by the slimmest of margins - they cannot seem to beat any of the elite teams in the league. They simply lack the offensive firepower to compete with the top teams, and were it not for an MVP performance from their goaltender, Tim Thomas, this Bruins team would be sharing the basement with the Lightning.

With a slate of games against some of the best teams in the country still left to play, Baikal's chances of cracking even the top half of the playoff teams are slim. The times are lean indeed, and even Irkutsk's legendary attendance figures have dropped off sharply this season. But I'll leave my screeds about club management for another post.

With the outdoor games that made me fall in love with this club quickly becoming a distant memory, I sometimes wonder when I will get back to see a bandy match in Irkutsk.