KHL Opening Cup. Ak Bars - SKA. Press-conference

HC Ak Bars head coach Zinetula Bilyaletdinov:

- We had too much adrenaline for this match. Overall, we committed plenty of mistakes and the opponents - who are very strong - took full advantage.

- When will Pavel Padakin be ready? You missed him and Alexander Svitov today.

- Alexander is still on the sidelines. At the moment, he’s training, but he won’t be ready for a long time. Pavel has started training too however he can’t play yet.

- Emil Garipov wasn’t at his best and could have performed better.

- He was too nervous.

- Artyom Lukoyanov stated that he was embarrassed with the performance. How do the other players feel?

- Artyom said it all.

- Maybe only he’s embarrassed?

- No, I think everyone is.

- Why was Paul Postma only the third powerplay option?

- That will change next time.

HC SKA head coach Ilya Vorobyov:

- I didn’t like a part of the first period, but for the opening match, we played very well.

- Why didn’t Alexei Byvaltsev, Oleg Li and Alexei Kruchinin participate? They had been training and playing together in the pre-season.

- We have a large roster and squad rotation is ongoing.

- Mikhail Maltsev was on the right flank instead of his natural position down the middle.

- Mikhail was on the right flank and I am pleased with how he played.

- How did Pavel Datsyuk’s line and Artyom Zemchyonok compete? Will Artyom be in the Russian national team roster?

- Artyom has settled in well here, he works hard and has improved since transferring to Saint Petersburg. Nevertheless, it’s too early to speak about the national team. Pavel Datsyuk’s line? Yes, they were excellent, but this is only the first match of the KHL campaign.

- Nail Yakupov took a leading role in Kazan.

- Nail did a great job, but I don’t want to single anyone out, the team as a whole was fantastic.