Pavel Buchnevich: "We will be ready for the playoffs"

- After not scoring in your first twelve SKA games, did you take confidence from your opening markers?

- I felt a bit of pressure, and I worried about the fact that I couldn't help the team with my goals.

- Nevertheless, Sergei Zubov was still satisfied with your performances.

- Goals are important for yourself. A forward should score.

- Your first came against Severstal.

- I really wanted to score, but I didn't plan it especially to be against my former team. In the first period, Severstal's players were very physical against me.

- Did they injure your nose?

- Yes, after that my desire to score doubled. It's good that I managed to do that.

- After that match, did you converse with Cherepovets' players?

- Of course, I have a lot of friends there. They congratulated me with my first SKA goals, and no one held any grudges.

- Recently, there has been a bad illness going around Saint Petersburg.

- It's nothing special, we just shake hands less.

- When you spoke with journalists, they were all in masks. Have the players been given them too?

- If someone is unwell, they are given a mask and are not allowed to come into the team. I think that it's the same everywhere.

- When you made the transfer to SKA, what were your thoughts?

- I was a bit afraid, this was my first move away from Cherepovets. I worried about the fact if the team would accept me, if I would be given playing time. So far everything is going well, and now we will prepare for the Gagarin Cup playoffs.

- Your father was a professional footballer, and in 1995 played for Lokomotiv Saint Petersburg. Did you consult with him before your move here?

- No, I'm a grown man already. He has been at our last few games, and soon my mother will make the trip too.

- She also made a career in sport.

- I want to say a huge thank you to my parents for such an upbringing, and that I took the path that I am on.

- Do you remember how your parents reacted to your decision to become a professional ice hockey player?

- My mother often got annoyed with me because of school, while my father was more relaxed.

- How did you graduate?

- The main thing is that I graduated! Because of school, I even missed the KHL Draft.

- Before this transfer, had you ever been to Saint Petersburg?

- One time I came here with my car to put a chip on it.

- Have you walked around the city?

- No, I haven't been anywhere yet. I went to dinner once, to the cinema and to the Galeria shopping mall. We have a busy schedule, there's no real free time.

- You begun your professional career in Severstal with Andrei Nazarov.

- All coaches have their own way of working. Andrei Nazarov had strong assistants: Vladimir Vorobyov and Igor Kalyanin. I have learnt a lot from them, and worked with them individually after trainings.

- Andrei Nazarov has a reputation as an excellent motivator.

- Yes, in that year we played really well, and even made the playoffs second round. That rarely happens.

- When called up for the Euro Hockey Tour, Russian national team head coach Oleg Znarok called you by your middle name. Has he not forgotten what it actually is?

- When he was in Saint Petersburg, he again said: "Andreich, Andreich!".

- Why has that come about?

- I don't know. On one occasion he came up to me, and said: "How are things, Andreich?". I don't think that it's an offensive joke.

- Is it great that the national team is giving more chances to younger players like yourself?

- I know a lot of the guys well. I will be nice to be in such a young Russian national team. It will be easier to show what I am capable of, when there are only stars there, I walk around with an open mouth.

- Do you always have your mouth open in SKA then?

- Sometimes I am shy to ask a question. For the first twelve games, I skated with an open mouth and couldn't score.

- SKA will begin the playoffs as a lower seed. Do you believe that you can win the championship?

- The team's position doesn't matter that much. SKA recovered from an 0:3 deficit in last year's Western Conference final, and in both the NHL and KHL eighth seeds have gone on to beat the first.

- Are SKA ready for the playoffs?

- Yes, but there is still time to improve some things. I am sure that the team will use this break well, and will be ready to fight for the Gagarin Cup again.