Athletistic / Hockey There are too many problems in the modern KHL, and it’s no secret. Too big a gap between rich and poor, the exodus of foreign players after February 24 and the rapid decline in foreign representation in the league, which of course cannot contribute to the growth of interest from spectators. In this situation, the coaching factor in small clubs is extremely important. In teams that are significantly below the moneybags in both finances and composition, it is extremely important to have a specialist head coach who can get the most out of the team. It is this coach that Cherepovets “Severstal” has, ready to once again spend the season at a level that absolutely does not correspond to the means available to the club.

So that you understand, at the moment the Cherepovites do not reach the salary floor of 42 million rubles – the club’s payment is 273 million rubles. In principle, the difficult financial situation is a common thing for the club, but this season it has worsened even more due to the sanctions against Alexei Mordashov, chairman of the board of directors of PJSC Severstal. Recent political events also caused the loss of several key legionnaires this off-season – Stenkvist, Rooba, Nyattinen left the club. But even all these negative events did not prevent Andrey Razin’s team from getting off to a strong start – three wins in four matches, and almost each of them can be savored: a confident victory in Chelyabinsk over the runners-up the East “Tractor” from last year ( 4:2), a fantastic comeback with “Magnitogorsk” after 0:3 before the last period (4:3 OT) and the defeat of the current champion CSKA (4: 1).

Andrey Razin’s side have been the main finds of the previous two seasons, in both cases reaching the playoffs and doing so with a lot of confidence. True, in both cases the steelworkers lost in the first round to Dynamo Moscow, but here too progress is noticeable – if in the 2020-2021 season the blue and whites needed only five matches, so this spring all seven.

Andrey Razin is above all a motivation. How do you get players to give their best in teams where salaries are low and which do not qualify for the Cup? We need a coach who knows how to motivate, able to federate the team around a common idea, and in any situation to find the right words. This is the kind of person who is Severstal’s mentor. When he has to, he can strip down and chase his guys in hand-to-hand combat (even if it was in VHL), put on a show in the locker room, turn it on on social media and just say something like that, after which hockey players want to go out and fight for every inch of ice.

Personally, I have certain doubts that Razin would have succeeded at big clubs – there is a completely different pressure and nobody needs emotional pumping there. From a tactical point of view, it cannot be said that Razin is somehow superior to his colleagues, but for poor teams with a weak roster, this is exactly the type of coach the team will grow with. And it’s coaches like Razin who are able to at least partially bridge that gap on the ice between the rich and poor clubs in the KHL.

A striking analogue of Razin from the recent past is Dmitry Kvartalnov at the helm of Siberia. However, unlike Razin, he broke too early to conquer the league’s top clubs, and we see what came of it. In no way do I want to judge Razin by Kvartalnov, just like I’m not saying he doesn’t deserve a chance at a stronger club, but in the current realities of the KHL league, the correct allocation of coaches is one critically important – it’s the only way today to keep most KHL teams competitive. There are just serious concerns that moving to a club with completely different duties could harm four parties at once: his old club, his new club, Razin himself and the KHL in particular. Moreover, there are enough similar examples.

What is gratifying is that the players do not get used to Razin, his pumps do not bother the hockey players. Otherwise, such a stable sensational performance by the club for the third season in a row would hardly have been possible. Razin is diverse in his interaction with players, knows how to maintain his authority and, most importantly, hockey players believe in his ideas. Well, actually, how can you not hear the coach when he says something like: “Look, the person who sat in our locker room last year moved to the locker room in Magnitogorsk and receives 10 times more than ours. Come out, prove it, maybe you will have the same salary next year .”

Currently, Severstal is the 5th team in the KHL in goals scored, 4th in shots, 2nd in majority conversions – and this is a direct merit of the fact that Andrey Razin, for several years now , make these guys believe! And if in the near future the paths of Razin and Severstal scatter, it could be a much bigger league-wide loss than even the departure of the whole of Jokerit or Dynamo Riga.

Pavel Novikov, Athletistic