“Gusev today became the top scorer in SKA history. Congratulations! — Roman Rotenberg

Head Coach S.K.A. Romain Rotenberg says that Nikita Gusev immediately updated the club’s goalscoring record, returning to the army of St. Petersburg.

On Wednesday, SKA defeated Sochi in the Fonbet home match of the KHL Championship with the score 5:2. Gusev, for whom this game was the first after returning to the army club, scored two points. Now the striker has 371 (122+249) points in 320 games for SKA.

“I had to work hard that autumn evening to get the win,” Rotenberg said. — The opponent played very quickly, the guys are skating well and are motivated.

– When the first team in the championship meets the last team, it is probably difficult for the coaches to immediately place the players?

– After the second period, there was a serious conversation. But we found the right words, and the guys reacted. Before the match, you should not look at the classification, all the opponents are strong. Tretiak played well for Sochi today. I had to work hard to turn the game around. The game was bone to bone, fighting for every millimeter of ice.

– There are a lot of SKA players in Sochi. Do they mostly want to show off in games with your team?

— There are many of our former players in other teams. We are proud of it. Every opponent in matches with us tries to show their best game. In response, we had to turn on the maximum afterburner in order to snatch victory. At home, you have to win. By the way, today Gusev became SKA’s top scorer in the history of the club. Congratulations to Nikita.

– In the ranking of the top scorers of SKA, Gusev overtook Kovalchuk. Maybe Ilya should be returned to the team in order to sharpen the competition in the team?

There are plenty of great players on this list, but everything has its time. There is no future without a past. We congratulate Ilya and everyone on this list. Their example allows us to grow. But we are looking to the future. Now we have a team that we will go through this season with. November and December will be difficult. We have a lot of guys called up to the KHL All-Star Game. More than other clubs. It is also a difficult time. I would like to see a roughly equal number of players from each club go there. Keep the teams on an equal footing. Let’s discuss it with the league. There is also the December tournament almost immediately. The main thing is to go through everything without getting hurt.

– Assess Gusev’s debut.

– If the team won, then everything is fine. We need not only Gusev, but also all our players to realize playing chances.

Gusev also played for SKA last season but did not renew his contract with the club. In September and October, Nikita was looking for options to continue his NHL career. However, in the end he signed a new contract with SKA – now until the end of the 2023/24 season.