Igor Larionov speaks after playing Spartak in Moscow

HC SKA head coach Igor Larionov:

“Special teams made the difference. Whereas Spartak capitalised on their powerplays, we failed to do the same. We lost an awful lot of energy competing shorthanded, a factor which affected the end result. After scoring their goals, Spartak were solid in defence and barely gave us a chance. You can’t win games if you don’t score goals.”

Lack of goals on the PP…

“Of course, we could point to the issue of not having certain key players available. In such games, when you need to make the difference on special teams, we were lacking coolness, passing accuracy, focus on getting to the net and confidence. We really miss Mikhail Vorobyov, who is always effective on the powerplay with Marat Khairullin. Nikolai Goldobin is also important for us on the PP, but we want more from him. He’s not with us at the moment because of his work ethic. I never want to not give players chances, but I want to see more commitment, determination. Right now, he’s losing out in terms of competition to the other guys.”

Leonid Tambiev’s role in the coaching staff…

“He will be responsible for organising how our forwards play. We’ve already spoken together about this, as he was present at two of our training sessions. When he was the head coach of Vladivostok, his team stood out with its compact play – something which we want to see in our game. We don’t want to become a team like Admiral, but his experience, knowledge and systematic approach are things which we need.”

Penalties taken by experienced players…

“When you’re going through a difficult period, you count on your experienced players. We need their calmness, confidence. However, for whatever reason, this isn’t the case now. I will speak to each individual player about this issue. As I said to the players in the dressing room, we will either sink or swim together. There are a lot of questions, and we need to find the solutions as a group.”