"I don't want to see the number of pucks conceded go up."

Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod, one of the KHL's brightest teams of recent years, is in big trouble this season. Igor Larionov's charges have lost more than half of their 50 games played. And with 18 games to go in the regular season, they risk being without a playoff spot. They are in eighth place in the Western Conference standings, the last of the teams to qualify for the Gagarin Cup.

Their main rival for the playoffs, China's Kunlun Red Star, is only six points behind. In an interview with Izvestia, one of Torpedo's leaders, defenseman Bogdan Konyushkov, commented on the away defeat in the last game against Dynamo Moscow (2:4), explained the reasons for the team's failures, and also told how the January change of defensemen coach Eduard Zankovets to Igor Ulanov affected the game.

- What prevented you from winning against Dynamo?

- When you play a lot in the minority, in general it is difficult. Some guys sit on the bench too long, some play, so the rhythm gets disrupted. We'll work on discipline, because we are always getting penalties and losing because of it. I don't want to be on the penalty bench myself and in general play in the minority all the time. We need to play more in the opponent's zone.

- Does it bother you that Torpedo is still far from securing a playoff spot, just ahead of Kunlun?

- I don't know. We're just trying to go from game to game, playing every game to win. It's clear that everyone wants to make the playoffs, but we don't care how our opponents play. The main thing for us is to show good hockey and win. We try not to think too far ahead and prepare for every game. The next game we have with CSKA - we are tuning up specifically for this opponent. We don't look a month ahead or back.

- In early January, Igor Larionov's staff underwent a high-profile reshuffle - Igor Ulanov became the defensemen's coach instead of Eduard Zankovets. How did the work with you change after that?

- We slightly reorganized the game in our zone. But nothing drastically changed. Just a new coach came and set new requirements. We have to meet them. It is clear that when Zankovets was removed, it was a little unclear what would happen next. This is business, and it can happen to anyone. But we wished a lot of luck to Eduard Konstantinovich, and I want to thank him publicly. It was a pleasure to work with him, he is a pleasant person. But Ulanov, who took his place, is also a good person and a good specialist. He presents us with new requirements, which should yield results.

- What are these requirements?

- He pays more attention to the game in his own zone - we adjusted it a little bit. And in the middle zone, behind the red line we basically have full improvisation. All the guys are skillful and can play out of the box, so we didn't touch this part. But there are some adjustments on defense. Everyone knows how many pucks we let in. We don't want this number to grow. We are working on it and we are more focused on defense.

- In a week you will take part in the KHL All-Star Game in Novosibirsk. What do you expect from it?

- I'm not thinking about it yet. We still have three more games to play in the regular season. I don't like to guess ahead of time. God forbid, some injury will occur, and all plans will change. That's why the main thing now is to help the team. It's clear that the All-Star Game is a special event for myself and my family. But right now I'm focused on Torpedo and don't want to get too excited about an event that's still a week away.