The head coaches of the teams summed up the today's game.
— Challenging, fast game. The opponent played very fast, we understood that. They are on the move, won 5-6 matches in a row. We probably started statistically not quite the way we would like. Nevertheless, we led 1-0 in the score. Added in the second and third periods. It's a difficult game for us, the opponent acted systematically. The guys knew this, I'm glad for them that they saw the business through. Guys, happy victory, I've always liked the Admiral game. It was a very good test for us today, so I'm glad we won.
— 8:5 with "Minsk" and 2:0 today. Is there a suspicion that today's victory was more satisfying?
- Yes. I will say that, leading 6-2 after the second period with Dynamo, nothing foreshadowed such a result. This is the experience we need. It's a game, emotions – the opponent made us make mistakes and scored his goals. Today there was another opponent, more organized, in my opinion, systemic. We told the guys that this is a fast team that knows how to play with the puck, has a certain skill. We have to pay tribute to the opponent, they dismantled us, and we were not able to play as well as in the previous match in the power play. There are always pros and there are always cons. We will rejoice until 12 at night, and tomorrow is a new working day. After such a game, emotions are always positive, our team needs them.
— Experts note the tenacity of the Admiral. Is that true?
— Yes, of course. A good, systematic team. They know how to play at speed with the puck, I like their transfer of the puck from defense to attack. That's a right way, they play on a small playground, there is a little more space here. What I saw when we went to visit them and what happened today is a very difficult team. They won six in a row for a reason. They show tenacious play both in the score and in the game. It's all visible. As I said, this is a good test for us. The best workout is a game.
— Two shots on goalposts, and the team took the lead. What was that?
— We will analyze the game. It seemed that we were not playing so badly, but at chances we lost three or four goals in the middle zone. Then they received counterattacks. Our young link made a mistake in the transfer in the middle zone on our side – this led to 3-4 minutes of storming our goal in the first period. We told this to the guys. There are certain bad tendencies among our young players. But they quickly got their bearings and straightened out the game, did not give unnecessary passes through the center of the field. They know our requirements perfectly well, but habits die last.
— Today, Skotnikov was put on the game again. Are you preparing him for the role of the second?
— At the moment, he is the second. We decided to give Adam a break, Sasha Sharychenkov is healthy, he is preparing. He has been healthy for a long time by our standards. He is undergoing combat training to play in the coming days. Most likely, it will be the second or third match on the road. Although Spartak or Vityaz is the Moscow region, but nevertheless.
— Interesting fact. It turned out that CSKA played for zero three times this season – not so much. And two dry matches on Vsevolod's account. Are these rivals not the most powerful or is he really a guy with potential?
— In my opinion, this is definitely not an accident. We can assume that this will mobilize our team, the name of the young goalkeeper. For example, we have not seen such statistics for the first period for our actions for a long time: on throw-ins, in terms of throws. Although I would not say that we played some kind of hockey, which does not imply pressure, aggression. But the statistics were against us, that's for sure. And in the last 10 minutes, our goal had 10 scoring chances of varying difficulty. Vsevolod does not play such games by chance, and I have already said everything else.
— The Admiral has the trap in the neutral zone, they meet quite low, somewhere on the red line. CSKA practically did not use short-board throws for two periods, only at the beginning of the third they were used several times. Is it stylistically unsuitable for CSKA? Or there are some other tactical motives?
— Sometimes, especially at the beginning of the game, we use scoring, but we also offer the guys control of the puck. If we have accelerated, if we have speed, we have tightened, pulled the defenders to the third attacker, and we have a certain sparse space where we offer the guys to enter with the control of the puck, or use a soft throw for their turn. Probably, our hockey players decided that there was this rarefied space, and entered with the control of the puck. In my understanding: even at speed it is better to go through a throw-in, hard or soft, it does not matter, the main thing is that the goalkeeper does not get this puck and does not start any defensive actions. That is, they have two options: at speed under control or throw-in, but the goalkeeper should not play this puck.
— Admiral's Libor Shulak is one of the most productive defenders in the entire league, have you paid any special attention to this?
— We paid attention to it, I don't know if it was special or not, but we clearly indicated to the guys that he participates in many schemes of the team's game, so we suggested to the guys that they should definitely play closer with him, they should definitely "turn him off" from the connection to the attack, they should definitely load him, especially the extreme forwards, who should keep puck and work with him in his defense zone. We paid attention to this mobile defender.
— Why with Tahir Mingachev playing does Matvey Guskov play as a central striker?
— Matvey, in my understanding, is always a central striker. Using young central forwards from the edge, we just make it easier for them to enter adult hockey. Tahir played both in the center and on the edge. We are developing the guys because it is always easier for the central strikers to play from the edge. In any case, this is the experience that we understand. At the moment Matvey looks good in the center, and we hope he will continue the same way.
— A natural outcome of the match, we had enough "fitness" even in the first period. In the second and third periods, we no longer had this movement, such aggression, nothing can be done, nature cannot be deceived. In the first period, the guys did well, they moved, they had a good command of the initiative, but they created practically nothing during either the second or the third periods. Cheers to our rival.
— The team looked decent, tell me, is it about physiology? Or are there any other nuances?
— I don't like to make excuses, specifically about the game: there was movement in the first period; the second and third – there's nothing to say, we couldn't create and do anything. Probably, after all, 7 hours of time difference is difficult. Consider that we finished playing at 5 am Far Eastern time, started at 2 am. We've only been here for the third day, I felt tired sitting on the bench myself, drowsed a little bit (laughs). Well done guys, they tried, blocked, tried to stick to the system of the game that we instill.
— Do you think there were chances to score a goal, with which Admiral pulls out matches, in the first period?
— Well, if we would have scored, then yes. I will say, according to our statistics, we threw 12-2 in the first period, but Slepyshev had one chance – he pocketed it, 12 shots, there was a goalpost throw there, and we had the majority. If he had pocketed the chance, maybe this goal would have given some confidence, would have given the guys an additional impetus to play a little. CSKA would have been harder to beat us, probably. The second and third periods – we ran out of gasoline, I would say.
— Considering that you have a match with Dynamo next, what adjustments are you going to make to get out of this physiological pit?
— The most important thing now is to prepare the guys for the match, to recover.
— The Admiral has a magical transformation this season, tell us what the secret is.
— It's so hard to say, you over-praise us a little, we haven't even played half of the championship yet, we always want the best. We adhere to a certain system of the game, the most important thing is that the guys got used to it, we lacked 2-3 players, rearranged the squad a little, flew to Moscow – they got sick. Three key players dropped out, we redrawn the third and fourth links a little, but the backbone remained, the guys got used to it, rallied. We try to make the guys play to the maximum, there is not enough training process, but the guys clearly know what we demand from them, how to play. I have studied the guys, I know them very well, we try to play on the best qualities.
— Is it possible to play something new in such a complex schedule?
— Today we walked along the beaten path, built the right philosophy of the game, the team philosophy. Now majority have disappeared somewhere. Now we score a little in the power play, I would like more. The KHL is an even, strong championship, here, of course, you can't get out on one philosophy, other methods and levers are needed here. The opponents are different: today – CSKA, the day after tomorrow – Dynamo, completely different styles of play, you need to adapt to everyone. We are trying to make Admiral an uncompromising team, "nasty" for many teams, something turns out, something does not.
