Vityaz’s performance was one of the discoveries of the current championship. The Moscow region team not only returned to the Gagarin Cup after regular season results, but did so ahead of schedule, finishing sixth in the Western Conference and leaving clubs such as Severstal, Dynamo Minsk and Spartak.
The “Vityaz” playoffs also started in a sensational way – with a victory over a much more powerful “Locomotive”. Yaroslavl managed to turn the streak around, but in the last two decisive encounters they won with great difficulty – only in extra time.
found out from the Vityaz head coach if and when his team could have taken the upper hand in the first round, and also spoke about the prospects for next season. After all, Vyacheslav Butsaev himself and many top players will end their contract with the club on April 30…
“There are no complaints against the team, but we are disappointed not to have reached the second round”
– This season, Vityaz not only qualified for the playoffs earlier than expected, but also fought against Lokomotiv. Did you have to change the philosophy of the team during the cup matches?
– The psychological mood of the team is one of the components of coaching. You can come to the team and say, “We’re just going to spend the season here, playing.” And you can set completely different tasks. Sport is not all about goals, points, seconds. In team sports, the psychology of the team and the sport is at the forefront. Only they can lead to success.
– The series with Lokomotiv turned out to be equal, although, unlike Vityaz, your opponent is called one of the main contenders for the Gagarin Cup. Could you, in principle, take over the people of Yaroslavl? After all, from the outside it looks like a feat.
Nothing is impossible in hockey. I have no complaints about the playing team. Although we are all disappointed that we could not qualify for the next round. We have imposed worthy resistance on the adversary. In each game, we missed a goal more than Lokomotiv. Although in Game 4, Vityaz had a good chance to tie the game in the series. Alas, we did not use them. So at this point Lokomotiv was even stronger.
– So if you took Game 4 in overtime, could you reverse the streak?
– If we had won then, then psychology would have come to the fore in the series. I saw that the guys were in charge of winning, they did everything to achieve it. Did not work. But again, I will say that I have no complaints about the team. Also, in the first round, we had to deal with both injuries and illnesses. Maybe the Cup experience wasn’t enough. Still, the degree, the heat in the playoffs is always higher than in the regular season.
– You have studied the Lokomotiv in depth in this confrontation. Do you see championship potential in Igor Nikitin’s squad? Considering that SKA had problems in matches with Dynamo Minsk, and CSKA are still fighting against Severstal and risk not reaching the second round at all?
– Lokomotiv is a very organized team, with a well-placed game. Yaroslavl players play their own system, have an excellent goalkeeping team. He is one of the contenders for the highest places.
“I will have a conversation with Vityaz about further cooperation”
– “Vityaz” from year to year seeks and finds strong legionnaires. But your defender Jeremy Roy has been a real discovery of the season. How would you rate it?
– He helped the team very well in the regular season, he was one of our leaders. Roy’s stats speak for themselves. The club have an agreement with him and for next season Jeremy is staying at Vityaz.
– We know that Roy in December wanted to pick up other clubs. In past seasons, Vityaz has already experienced the fact that top players have been taken away from him in the middle of the championship. How did you manage to save the team from being torn apart?
— We didn’t set ourselves the task of raising the level of players to sell them later. Vityaz was in the playoff zone, everyone saw that the team was playing well. It is already the merit of the management to have succeeded in saving the composition. As a coach, I have little to do with it.
– Do you have a contract with Vityaz for this season only?
Yes, until April 30.
– Do you want to stay and are there any “traps” in extending the contract?
What do you mean by “pitfalls”?
– Instead of the management of Vityaz, it would be logical to say that the team had a great season and to invite you to continue working with them. But, for example, yesterday we spoke with the general director of Dynamo Moscow Anatoly Kharchuk about the future of the head coach. The issue of Alexei Kudashov has not yet been resolved at the club, and it does not directly depend on the work he has done. What is your situation ?
– There have been no substantive conversations yet. Now that the team is in weekend, it is necessary to digest the series. But I hope that we will soon resume the conversation with the management of Vityaz about further cooperation.
“If there had been no injuries, we would have been even higher in the standings”
– You took sixth place in the Western Conference, but at the same time you heard more than once that Vityaz scored easy points in matches with Kunlun and Sochi. What can you answer?
– When you go out to play, no one guarantees you a two-point lead, regardless of the opponent. Many strong clubs had problems in matches with Kunlun and Sochi. And then, not only did we play with these clubs, and we didn’t establish the schedule. Therefore, all this talk that someone was lucky is just emotions and excuses, nothing more.
– This season has shown that teams with small budgets can “shoot” both in the regular season and in the playoffs. What are the prospects for Vityaz? Can your rather young team continue to improve?
– Without a number of circumstances related to player injuries and illnesses, Vityaz would have been even higher in the standings. But at the moment I can’t say for sure what will happen after April 30 – who will stay in the team and who will go to other clubs. Surely there is interest for our players. Vityaz will also intervene in the off-season market. Therefore, we must first decide on the composition and then see if we can go further.
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Source : MatchTV
I’m Emma Smith, a dedicated journalist and avid storyteller. I have been writing for news websites for the past 5 years, reporting on hockey news and delivering in-depth analysis of the sport. In my current role as Author at Athletistic, I write about hockey events from around the world to keep followers up-to-date with what’s happening in the sport.
