Minsk coach “Dynamo” Craig Woodcroft rated the team’s performance in the 2022/23 Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) season.
The Minsk team took eighth place in the regular season in the West and qualified for the playoffs, where they lost to SKA in six matches (2–4) in the first round.
— I want to explain how I see the season. It is necessary to take into account the objectives and the results.
Every coach sets maximum goals. On the first day of training camp, he said that we start the path here to win the Gagarin Cup. Obviously I’m sitting here when the playoffs are over. And we didn’t achieve that goal, so I’m not happy.
Next objective: the development of young players. Nine young Belarusians made their KHL debuts in the 2022/23 season. It’s a lot. If you look back over the past three seasons, 27 Belarusian players have made their KHL debut. That’s a big number. It only takes three years for a player to develop and reach a new level. In addition, the coaching staff has gained experience over the years. Over the years, young Belarusian coaches have worked. It was also one of the plans. In general, I am satisfied with the development.
Something went wrong ? Two points. We have again created a new team. It’s not enough to get the guys together and say – play. It does not work. The team must find its identity. There are ups and downs in this process.
The second point is our composition. In some positions there was a depth of the team, in others there were not enough players. For example, we often lost faceoffs. But without winning faceoffs, it’s hard to play our style of hockey – offensive and aggressive. Therefore, we had to move the guys into positions. On the other hand, the guys had the opportunity to prove themselves in other roles, – the Dynamo press service quoted the coach.
Watch live broadcasts of matches of the Fonbet KHL Championship on the federal channel, thematic channels of the holding, as well as on the matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru websites.
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.
