SKA - Dynamo Moscow. Press-conference

HC SKA head coach Roman Rotenberg:

“This was a playoff-like game. Everyone saw how our team fought today, all of our players battled hard and won the duels across the ice. We were a lot tighter in defence, which is a big step forward for us. Our goalkeeper Artemiy Pleshkov deserves a lot of credit, he performed excellently and gave us a chance to win. We would have achieved a positive result had we taken advantage of our scoring opportunities.

“We now have to focus on playing against Dinamo Minsk on the road, a really strong side which has the backing of passionate supporters. The atmosphere there in Belarus is always fantastic! We’ll try our best to take the two points back to Saint Petersburg.

“Did we make major chances to our defensive approach? No. Our approach has always been the same: five in defence, five in attack. The only thing which changed was the fact that all of our players skated back in time. I liked how we competed shorthanded too, we didn’t allow Dynamo to create any chances. Unfortunately, though, we lost a lot of energy as a consequence of playing on the PK for five minutes.

“The main difference was that we covered Dynamo’s counter-attacks and were solid during transition plays. In terms of our attacking play, we will think about how to start scoring again in our upcoming games. Rumours are suggesting that Evgeny Kuznetsov won’t play for SKA again? The club has already confirmed that these rumours don’t hold any truth. We will do everything in our power to help Evgeny and his family, but I’m not going to reveal the details. Evgeny needs to fully recover after his concussion and shoulder injury. When he’s 100% healthy, he will return to our team.

“We took a huge step forward today in terms of our playoff preparation. If we look at our overall performance level, this was one of our best matches of the campaign so far. We played through Dynamo’s press and the neutral zone effectively. 

“Ivan Demidov didn’t play at all? To be honest, he has struggled physically and emotionally since the KHL All-Star Weekend. Nevertheless, Ivan will play on Sunday. He had a rest today and will consequently feel more energised in our next match. As the season has progressed, teams have started to use a more physical approach against Ivan, landing plenty of hits. We will want Ivan to help the team.”

HC Dynamo Moscow head coach Alexei Kudashov:

“This was a solid game from our point of view. Of course, there are components which require improvement, but I liked our overall performance level and how we followed the game plan. 

“Given SKA’s recent results, did we expect them to focus on defence? We don’t think about the opponents. Yes, of course we take their style into account, but we’re focused on our own game. Our powerplay is an aspect of today’s game which certainly needs to improve.

“Maxim Motorygin earned a clean sheet? He played really well, but we also have to consider just how well the skaters in front of him played as well. Our guys put their bodies on the line and blocked plenty of pucks. We won five games against SKA this season? We hadn’t changed anything in comparison to last year. It goes like this, there isn’t any deeper meaning.”