Admiral Vladivostok - Ak Bars Kazan predictions and free betting tips [10/10/2023]

Regular tournament of the Continental Hockey League 2023/2024. The second match of the Tuesday’s game day will be a battle in Vladivostok, where Admiral will host the main favourite of the Eastern Conference - Ak Bars from Kazan.

Admiral Vladivostok

If you never heard about Leonid Tambiev, then you probably don't follow KHL. For the second season in a row, the Latvian specialist is making an impact in the league. However, while last season it was due to the excellent performance, now it's more due to the media attention. So far, Admiral has not been satisfying with their performance. Following 14 matches, they have only 12 points and sit on the 11th rank in the Eastern conference. They earned these points due to three victories in regular time, two overtime wins, two losses with one point, while they lost the remaining seven games without gaining a point.

Admiral’s main problem at the moment is their defence. While they conceded the least in last season, this year it's looking pretty bad - 37 goals which place them on the fourth rank in the East. If we also consider that Amur and Ak Bars have conceded the same amount, Admiral's rank is even worse- sixth place. Moreover, they scored just 33 goals- the third worst indicator. That's why Admiral is at the bottom of the league table.

Ak Bars Kazan

On the contrary, Ak Bars, though conceding at the same level as Admiral, is a team that scores almost the most in the East, precisely 49 goals - only Metallurg did better and is at the top of the league table. Currently, Ak Bars is the leader in the East in terms of lost points. If deducting the lost ones, they are on the third place. After 15 matches, they amassed 21 points thanks to seven wins in regular time, three in overtime and one loss after regular game time while they simply lost four games.

Interestingly, Ak Bars suffered two losses in the past five games, which seems too much for the main favourite of the season. However, remembering the past season when Ak Bars clinched all points on their far east tours, we can still count on them this season as well, especially since they started with a signature 2:1 victory against Admiral.

Head-to-Head

Admiral and Ak Bars have played 27 matches together. Ak Bars won 20 times whereas Admiral managed to win only seven times. In this season, Ak Bars proved to be the stronger one in the first match, finishing with a 2:1 score.

Predictions

Clearly, Ak Bars is the favourite in both public and bookmaker's views - even considering they are playing away, Betcity's odds on their win are at 1.96 while the odds on Admiral's win stand at 3.70. Hence, it's reasonable to back an Ak Bars win, given the favourable odds against an almost confirmed outcome.