Former head coach of the Russian national hockey team Vladimir Pluschev believes that St. Petersburg SKA has emerged from the crisis, but the team is still lacking in luck.
Roman Rotenberg’s team scored 24 points in 22 matches of the Fonbet KHL Championship and ranks 7th in the Western Conference. In September, SKA suffered five consecutive defeats.
— The team is completely new, 90% updated. It never happens that a new team performs consistently. The result is natural, because a very sharp change in personnel, as they say in the army, will not immediately bring a positive result.
But in the future, I don’t know how it will happen. Coaches select players for the future.
— Knowing that SKA won the regular season last season, were such radical changes really necessary? Or are they useless?
— I don’t know what guided the technical staff or the SKA management team. In a way you are right, because last season the team was consistent and showed good results. I can only say that I would not dare to change the composition. There would probably be occasional replacements, but I wouldn’t dare do it so radically.
— You noted that these changes may bring results in the future. Should SKA fans dream of the Gagarin Cup this season?
“Peter has recovered from the fever, but failures still haunt him. But in the playoffs, anything can happen. The team can approach it on the basis of character, of pride.
Although, of course, the technical and tactical work, the team work, takes more than one or two days to coordinate. And as I understand it, SKA’s selection work continues. Moreover, the SKA intends to invite certain people, and not “semi-finished products”, as Anatoly Vladimirovich Tarasov once said about young hockey players. This means that each player has character, with their own vision. It takes time to bring them together as one team. And not everyone will be able to stay on the team next year.
— Which hockey player did you expect the most from? And who can add?
— SKA has very experienced players with their own character, personality and hockey credo. We can therefore expect great progress from everyone. The question is, how wisely will they be used? After all, each player can only be useful when the coach clarifies what he needs, what the team needs from him.
And only when all things are tied together will there be a result. When a player is used like that, he plays the way he wants. And hockey is a team game,” Plyushchev told Sport Day by Day.
Watch Fonbet matches of the KHL championship on the channels of the Match holding company, as well as on the sites matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru.
“Sport day after day”
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.
