SKA – Sibir. Press-conference

HC SKA head coach Roman Rotenberg:

- I would like to point out the fantastic atmosphere inside the Ice Palace, everyone roared on the team and provided our players with some of the best support I’ve witnessed since 2015. I want to praise our guys for their performance today, it was a difficult match in which we managed to create a lot of opportunities. In the third period, we spent 10 minutes inside the attacking zone in comparison to Sibir’s one. Unfortunately, we conceded while playing shorthanded. The incident involving Brendan Leipsic and I was rather controversial, because the referees didn’t give any warnings. They always used to give warnings before issuing penalties, but not today. The fact that we’re creating chances means that we’re progressing, we know that we’re on the right track. September is a really tough moth for us, so I would like everyone to be patient. We will gain optimal shape and start winning games.

- SKA registered 44 shots on target, but only managed to score once.

- We unleashed 97 shots and tallied 44 on target. As a consequence, we know that the players are in good physical shape and are managing to compete with energy. We need to start scoring. Soon we will fly to the Far East for our next away trip, so we have to be ready. The fact that we had to compete in four away matches at the start of the season has affected us, it’s really difficult to play on the road for so long. This year, we got the group together for pre-season later than last year, as the previous campaign was lengthy. It’s vital that we enter peak form at the right time.

At the same time, though, a lot of our guys weren’t with us for the entirety of pre-season, this has resulted in our line formations changing. Stepan Starkov and Emil Galimov will soon return from injury, this was only Arseniy Gritsyuk’s third competitive game for SKA and Stepan Falkovsky has just come back from the sidelines. We really must start becoming more ruthless when in front of goal, we’re not taking advantage of our numerous chances. Furthermore, we cannot take penalties while competing on the powerplay. We’ll analyse what happened and return stronger for Wednesday.

- Are the players feeling the pressure?

- No, no one is applying pressure on the team. We have a good atmosphere within the group. The guys really want to win, but their desire it preventing them from playing with a level head when presented with a chance to score. When you create 20 opportunities, you must remain calm. In the third period, we completely dominated and protected the puck effectively. However, just like Vladimir Alistrov did, for example, we needed to crash the net harder and force the opponents into committing fouls. If we start doing this, we will begin scoring more goals.

- You made a lot of line changes in the third period.

- We have just held a good conversation with the players in the dressing room. The third period was our best performance of the campaign so far, so therefore I think that the guys deserve to continue competing in these line formations on Wednesday. We dominated the match, we were only lacking goals.

- SKA aren’t scoring on the powerplay. During the pre-season training camps, how much attention did you pay to this aspect of the game?

- We’re always trying to improve all components of ice hockey. We had discussed special teams yesterday. Last season, we didn’t concede a single goal while playing shorthanded in the maiden 20 matches! We barely lost any games either. Penalty killing is a crucial aspect of the game, and the same can be said for the powerplay. Everything depends on hard work. Due to the demanding schedule, we haven’t got an awful lot of time for training. Nonetheless, our players are starting to improve, and today we saw that Alex Galchenyuk has started to adapt to the KHL after playing in the NHL for so many years. Evgeny Svechnikov for Ak Bars Kazan is also finding it difficult to adapt to this league too, but today Alex was excellent. If he continues working like this, the goals will come.

- SKA are taking an unusually high amount of penalties. Is this because of the difficult pre-season training camps?

- No. Our approach this summer was the same as last year’s. However, the difference is that some of the guys joined us at a later date, whereas last year we participated in 12 friendly matches using the same line-up. We didn’t have that opportunity this year. It was the right decision to give some players an extra-long summer holiday, they played in 103 games last season! We totally dominated in the third period, something which proves that the players have energy and have recovered from the summer camps. I would like to apologise to the fans, but I also like to ask them to be patient. We will start winning, and you’ll see this on Wednesday.

- Sibir gained revenge for their pre-season loss here. Next up are Severstal Cherepovets, who are also after revenge having lost here in late August. Aren’t you afraid of this situation repreating itself on Wednesday?

- Official matches are lot more important than pre-season ones. This pre-season was different for us, we only managed to compete in four games with this line-up. The likes of Nikolai Polyakov and Falkovsky weren’t able to play because of injuries and illness, the same can also be said for Zakhar Bardakov.

- How concerned are you with this difficult period? Are you having trouble sleeping at night?

- A head coach can’t lose his sleep! Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to coach. A coach needs to get enough sleep in order to provide the team with the required energy. We’ve gone through various situations with SKA over the years, we have previously had to endure long losing streaks like this one. I remember when in 2015 Vyacheslav Bykov and Igor Zakharkin were coaching the team, and the latter said that it was a planned slump when we had conceded a few defeats in a row. We subsequently went on to win the Gagarin Cup that season! In order to cope with this situation in the right way, you must have experience. This streak is making the team immune to future challenges. Everyone needs to get enough sleep, including the media!

HC Sibir Novosibirsk head coach David Nemirovsky:

- This is a good team win, the guys fought hard, blocked pucks and finally scored on the powerplay. We could have scored more goals, but it isn’t quite going our way so far. Our PK units were excellent, and our goalkeeper made the big saves when required.

- How difficult was it in the third period? SKA outshot you 15-2.

- We started the period well, but then we took an early penalty. There were quite a lot of situations in which we simply needed to clear the puck, but we failed to do so and SKA consequently protected possession. We had spoken about the importance of clearing the puck between the periods. However, the ice wasn’t of the best quality in the third period, the puck was constantly bouncing around. It affected both us and the opponents.

- Nikolai Prokhorkin played against his former club today. How would you rate his performance today and his overall progression?

- It’s his birthday too, so this is an important day for him! Nikolai is gradually improving. Having missed practically the entirety of last season it isn’t easy for him, but he is feeling better with every passing training session and game.

- You had a couple of big scoring chances while playing shorthanded. Had you analysed SKA’s powerplay approach?

- These things can happen. We need to watch what happened, but I think that the puck was bouncing around. When you’re shorthanded, the main thing is to not concede.

- You managed to gain revenge for the defeat at the Nikolai Puchkov Tournament.

- These two games here were actually quite similar, we also held a 2:0 advantage in that particular match. We were better prepared today, we knew that SKA were going to attack and that we had to soak up a lot of pressure. Even though we lost in Sochi, I’m satisfied with our performances in the most recent two matches, we can see how the players are gaining speed and are moving the puck better. In Sochi, the issue was that we started poorly and took a quick penalty.

HC SKA forward Alexander Kadeikin:

- 97 shots and only one goal? A lot of teams can only think about how to create 100 opportunities in which to shoot! At least we have started to create chances now, the next step is scoring goals. If we once again unleash 100 shots but actually start scoring in our next game, everything will be fine. 100 shots means that we’re competing in a simple manner? No, I wouldn’t say that, we made lots of combination plays and controlled the puck in the Novosibirsk zone. Our quality of performance doesn’t correspond with our place in the standings.

HC SKA forward Sergei Tolchinsky:

- It’s a shame that we lost, but defeats make you stronger. I still felt that we played well, it’s important that we managed to create a lot of opportunities. I played in one line with Gritsyuk for the first time this season? We played well together, creating chances and spending a lot of time inside the attacking zone. The puck is refusing to go in at the moment, but the main thing is to continue working and everything will improve. Maybe we’re lacking cool heads in front of goal. Did Sibir surprise us after playing against us in the friendly tournament during the summer? No, they played in the same way. Their goalkeeper was solid, especially during the third period. We spent the entire frame inside their zone.