Boris Mayorov: “I am generally against foreign players in the KHL. Our hockey depends on Russians, not foreigners!

“My preference in the final is Yaroslavl”

— What do you expect from the Gagarin Cup final, in which they will play?Metallurgist ” And “Locomotive “?

— We have never seen such a version of the finale. And it’s very good that we don’t see the usual names: CSKA, Dynamo, SKA, Ak Bars…

I’m looking forward to this series. My personal preference is Yaroslavl. For what? Because the team plays very well in attack and defense. I can’t say that Lokomotiv adapts to the opponent. On the contrary, in this series Metallurg will have to get used to Yaroslavl’s way of playing to achieve a positive result.

— Can we say that Lokomotiv is similar to CSKA at its best and that coaches Igor Nikitin and Dmitry Yushkevich work according to the army model?

— I don’t observe such associations at all. There are a few CSKA players – the same captain Sergei Andronov or Maxim Shalunov. But that doesn’t mean Lokomotiv will play in the same style. Nikitin came to Yaroslavl with his own ideas about how he sees hockey. But he also takes into account the quality of the material in his hands. It is false to say that Nikitin copies his military experience.

– The leaders of the playoffs were young Russians – Dmitry Silantyev, Maxim Berezkin (14 points each), Artur Kayumov, Roman Kantserov (12 each), Danila Yurov (9)… This is a consequence of the fact that the KHL introduced a limit of three foreign players per team and the level of the league dropped?

— I wouldn’t say that the level of the KHL has fallen. This is far from true. And this level has always been maintained not by foreign players, but by Russian hockey. Think about it yourself: three foreign players in a team – can they change the structure of the game?

Probably not. It is the foreigners who must adapt to the hockey that this or that team advocates. Now I see in the press: “Well, an increase in the number of foreign players will lead to the fact that we will get rich from foreign hockey.”

But what type of enrichment are we talking about? Our hockey will absorb these foreign players who come to the KHL. They must adapt to our conditions. This is the most serious error of those who advocate this. I don’t understand at all the criteria by which people vote to increase the number of foreign players to five. It’s someone who cheated on someone. And so we got this result.

— But the FHR board voted for five foreign players.

— I would not want to address this subject in print. Let me just say that as a board member, I did not vote for it.

I am generally an opponent of foreign players in our hockey. Three per club – let them be. But what, in “Spartak” the main roles are played by Patrick Rybar, Joseph Keane or Shane Prince? How many foreign names can you name who are system-building players at their KHL clubs? You can count them on the fingers of one hand.

“The same “Salavat Yulaev”, with five legionnaires, made up the first five and gave them the first brigade of the majority.

— There were Finnish collections, which later became Olympic champions. They made the difference in the Ufa team, I agree. But this is not the case currently.

“KHL wants to separate from FHR? But that’s absurd!

— What do you think about the fact that the next KHL season could be extended until May 31?

– I think this question is not completely resolved. No wonder Barys management opposed this schedule. We don’t know what will happen in a year. Let’s say the special operation ends tomorrow. And I am absolutely sure, everything will return to normal. So what are we going to do then?

And the desire of the KHL to separate from the hockey federation and be an independent organization like the NHL is absurd in our Russian realities. How will we react to the results of the Russian national team if the best do not play there? I’ll see how the public reacts to that.

And what will be the ranking of the semi-finals and final of the Gagarin Cup at the World Championship? If these matches overlap… Think about that too.

— And the NHL playoffs are in full swing in May…

– I would say here. I’m not sure many people follow the National Hockey League. For example, I’m not. I don’t have a matching channel nor am I looking on the internet. I only read the sports newspaper, where I watch the results. I am always curious to know what positions our foreign players occupy in the general statistics. It’s also important who gets how much playing time.

And I’m already sick of this sports newspaper. Because they only write about Ovechkin. It seems we don’t have any other hockey players. Will he beat Gretzky’s record or not? Well, as many Christmas trees as possible?

“I give Zhamnov and his staff a plus for the season”

— If the KHL becomes independent, will the Russian champion be determined during the VHL finals, in pairs like AKM – Neftianik?

— I don’t know, you have to ask the KHL how it wants to reach an agreement with the FHR. Unfortunately, over the past year we have not met at the board level to discuss all of these issues.

— What is your impression of Spartak’s performance this season?

“Spartak left the most pleasant impression.” I judge by the nature of the game and the result. We probably could have played more brilliantly in the quarter-final series against Metallurg. I will not say that the Urals are much stronger and more powerful. Magnitogorsk simply proved to be more flexible in these matches. But Spartak still didn’t give up without a fight. I think Alexei Zhamnov and his coaching staff should get a plus for this past season.

— Will it be possible to save the team? Mikhail Maltsev and Ivan Morozov are under contract in the NHL, Maxim Tsyplakov could go there. Or would you advise them not to fly to North America?

“I never recommend anything to anyone.” Everyone decides for themselves, relying on their own strengths.

Well, who will go to the NHL? Maltsev was already there, Morozov too. Then they returned to the KHL. What, are you going there a second time? Well, try it. Maybe the second edition will be successful.

But from my point of view, the same Nikolai Goldobin did not reach the NHL because he plays with clean pucks. And there, you always have to fight, on every centimeter of ice. Without that, you have no business being in the NHL.