Igor Larionov speaks after the second match of the Nikolai Puchkov Tournament

Conclusions drawn from these two games…

“It’s too early to draw any conclusions, normally you make them after five or six matches. To be honest with you, I’m happy with the quality of our performances. We passed the puck well, competed with aggression in the attacking zone. We can see the progress which we’re making, the guys are beginning to do the things which we want them to do. This brand of ice hockey will bring us success.”

Rocco Grimaldi’s performance…

Everyone needs time. As I had previously said, we weren’t initially planning to use Rocco today, but he asked to play. We played well enough to score a few goals today. Why didn’t we manage to score? We lacked good fortune in front of goal. Just look at the goal which we conceded; I’m not even sure that it was a shot from the Avtomobilist player. When you play against teams which defend solidly, you always need to score the first goal and make the game open. When this doesn’t happen, it’s really difficult to break such teams down.”

Why Nikita Zaitsev didn’t play today…

“He’s had an operation as a consequence of suffering a broken finger. The doctors have stated that he will probably miss five or six weeks. How did he receive this injury? The puck struck his finger.”

Sergei Ivanov’s showing in net…

“It’s difficult to rate him based on one match, but I liked his performance today. He dealt with the shots which he faced.”

Fatigue as a result of the summer training camps…

“We cannot speak about fatigue! This word is banned, and the same goes for summer ice hockey and the issue of legs being heavy. The tempo of our work has been high right from the start. The issue today was that we couldn’t break the opponents’ defence down, not fatigue from our training camps.”

Why SKA are parting ways with certain players…

“The players in question do not fit the requirements which we have set. Does this also concern Vladimir Alistrov? Yes.”

Plans before the KHL starts…

“We’re still waiting for Joseph Blandisi, who is scheduled to arrive on 4 September. We have time to work on aspects of our game which require improvement, and this includes our ruthlessness in front of goal. You don’t win cups in August! We have to prepare for the league in the correct manner. There are rumours that we’ll play a friendly against Avangard? Really? Well, this means that we’ll play them then.”