“The series with the Belarusians is the most difficult tournament of my life!
– What is your impression of the finished season?
– The May series with the Belarusians turned out to be very difficult, and I can honestly tell you about it. No kidding, it was the toughest tournament for me. But I went through a lot – the Olympics, world championships and world youth championships, a lot of games in the KHL…
And the thing is not just that, as a head coach, I worked on that May streak. Although I am very grateful to the FHR coaching council and personally to the president Vladislav Tretiak – to everyone who supported me and gave me this confidence. But the fact is that it was a very difficult series. Lots of flights, unusual schedule. Even in the KHL we play every other day, but here we played every day and we had no time to recover.
Therefore, I am very proud of the guys, the whole team – everything was given for victories. And we didn’t expect such a success, that there would be so many fans in the stands, that there would be so many conversations around us, and it would be interesting for everyone. But the ratings are off the scale – our matches were watched by 12 million people. This inspires us for a new series.
We must preserve our great traditions. We listen to our great legends who inspire us to new victories. The continuity of generations is very important to us. And a deep bow to all the fans, all the journalists – for supporting us.
– What matches will the Russian team play next season?
– We are ready to accept any challenge, and the match schedule will be approved by the coaching council. Consider the busiest schedule. Last season we played 104 games. It’s not easy for athletes and coaching staff. But we will discuss what the matches will be and who to play with. We are ready to take on challenges.
— Is it possible to expand the number of members? Not just Belarusians and Kazakhs – who else can you play with in May?
— We are ready for all options, and God forbid we will have a wider choice. But I will tell you that the Belarusian national team is a very strong opponent. They beat us in December in a home tournament. And our task was to prove that we are the Russian team. And we can beat the Belarusian team, even if the opponent is strong. We treat them with great respect. But it was necessary to avenge December, to show in May all the power of the Russian team.
“We are already in dialogue with friends from India”
— The BRICS Summer Games could start soon — can ice hockey be represented at the BRICS Winter Games?
— You ask a very interesting question, because we recently met our friends from India. And we just discussed those moments – what kind of cultural exchange between India and Russia can be.
– What are the options?
For example, you can go to India to play field hockey. And in return, we invite our Indian friends to play ice hockey with us. Of course, it will take some time to prepare them and bring them to the desired level. Well, we’re ready to play field hockey. Because life dictates its own terms. And we are ready to develop and work.
We have such an example of working with China, and we understand how to build everything. Now we are starting to discuss formats with BRICS countries. Because ice hockey can be played in South Africa, Brazil, China and India. These are the countries we need for development and cooperation. We will promote ice hockey there, we will play field hockey ourselves. It is cooperation between countries – we are ready to work in this direction.
— Previously, the biathlon was a border patrol competition between Sweden and Norway. And now it is one of the most popular sports in the world. Do you want to develop hockey in India, for example?
– For this, some things are needed – first of all, ice. And look how popular field hockey is in India. The matches bring together 90,000 spectators. This is what we must strive for. There is something to take as an example. And we will work. We are going to build ice rinks there, while developing very popular traditional sports – I am talking about field hockey.
“Do you want to return Russia? We will only trust the documents.
– The President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, said the other day that the discrimination against Russian athletes must end. Is a thaw in relations between the Russian Ice Hockey Federation (RHF) and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) likely?
– I will tell about my personal example. When we went to the Olympics in Korea, we also encountered political obstacles. We talked a lot with the IOC, we had conversations with Bach…
We will only trust the documents. Words are just words. We need documentary proof when we will be allowed to participate in international tournaments again. So we shouldn’t speculate on this topic and guess anything at the moment. We are now busy preparing our children. Therefore, together with our partners, we are building hockey schools, preparing these children for the fact that when we return, we will beat everyone.
We do not believe that such a situation currently exists. It does not depend on us at all. Therefore, we work for the future, so that our children at all ages beat Canada and the United States, Finns and Swedes … And at 12, and at 13, and at 14-15 -16 years old, and so on. I’m talking about all the junior and youth teams. If we learn to beat them at any age, it will lift the spirit of the winner. And then we will come back, becoming much stronger than we were. Even if we have already won a lot. But, as they say, the ice will show who was right. Without a past, there is no future – we don’t look at the current situation, but how we will play tomorrow.
– What do you think of the draft procedure, in which the Russians are chosen? The same SKA striker Matvey Michkov ended up in Philadelphia.
– We respect all systems and have no right to comment on whether this is correct or not. But we believe in our training system. She is absolutely right. Here in North America, there are tests before the draft. But we in SKA do the same tests! The guys will be coming to training camp in July – they will also be going through physical tests! Only we do not shout it to the whole country. Why do we need PR, like they do in the NHL?
They have a PR machine that promotes their business. We are also open to cooperation with journalists, and we show everything. Please come join us. And you will see that our tests are much better than even on the NHL combine.
– Alexei Zhamnov’s contract with FHR is over – who will be the new head coach of the Russian national team?
– All such decisions will be made by the FHR Coaches Council. It is useless to discuss it for us. Let me say that we are heading in the right direction. We’ve spent so much time on this already, we’ve studied so much over the years… We’ve spent our whole lives figuring out how you can achieve such results.
Just recently, two-time Olympic champion, our legend Boris Mayorov said that he really liked the game model of the Russia 25 team. This is the hockey we need. We will therefore continue to work in this direction. And there, time will tell… Our motto is: we talk less – we do more!
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.
