Igor Larionov speaks after playing the Dragons

HC SKA head coach Igor Larionov:

"First of all, I want to congratulate all hockey fans with the start of the season! And, of course, congratulations to the home team with their victory. We cannot afford to concede seven goals. Nevertheless, we now have this evening and tomorrow to analyse what happened and move on."

The short spell which saw Shanghai move three goals ahead...

"It's tough to explain what happened right now. We need to carefully analyse what mistakes were committed. To be honest, even though this was officially an away game, we were playing in Saint Petersburg and we consequently felt the pressure. The fans who came to the arena today expected us to win. We have to think with cool heads and analyse the match in detail."

Sergei Ivanov's substitution...

"You won't know the strength of your goalkeeper until you allow him to pass through challenging situations. There was no need to swap him after conceding two or three goals, because we wanted to see how he would cope. He's a young guy, and this is all part of the process. Just like the rest of us, he will be able to forget what happened and move on."

Possible regrets about spending the campaign at the Ice Palace...

"This issue was outside of our control. I know some of the details, but there's no point in speaking about them now. Of course, the SKA Arena is a fantastic stadium, but you should be able to find the fire within yourself at any arena. We have to be passionate and refuse to lose. If we speak about the Ice Palace, then we have to remember that SKA won two Gagarin Cups there!"

Positives to take away from this match...

"I liked our puck movement and powerplay. We scored good goals, and plenty of our attacking moves were promising. There were a lot of moments in the game when we quickly moved the puck out from defence in order to counter-attack dangerously.

"I really liked one particular combination play put together by Matvei Korotky and Vladislav Romanov, in which they moved the puck with speed and thought quickly. We want to see more of the same in upcoming games."

What was lacking in the third frame...

"Good fortune was lacking. We came close, notably with Korotky striking the pipe. During the break, we had asked our players to send the fans home happy. Yes, unfortunately we couldn't achieve the desired result, but we tried and came close.

"By the way, we have to remember that young players such as Matvei Polyakov, Romanov and Nikita Dishkovsky are all making their first KHL steps. They need time. Going forward, maybe we will put them in lines with more experienced guys in order to find a better balance."

Why SKA's players aren't shooting when required...

"We want our players to shoot! We already know that we can score beautiful goals, but now we must start scoring goals which aren't pretty. This concerns tips, rebounds. You have to put bodies in front of the goalkeeper, search for the rebounds and make telling deflections. Such goals are always vital, so we need to start scoring them. As coaches, we'll make sure that the guys understand this."

Possibility of Joseph Blandisi playing in Nizhny Novgorod...

"He only arrived here yesterday, and he had planned to play today. Joe trained with the team on Friday, before skating with Nikita Zaitsev this morning. He's full of desire! However, having embarked on a lengthy journey to get here, we don't want to rush matters. We are planning on giving him a certain number of minutes on Monday. The season's long, we have to be careful and not be too hasty. He's got a good sense of humour and loves the food at Hockey City! Moreover, I can already see that he has the ability to score dirty goals from the crease and is striking up a good relationship with his teammates."