"We need to go out and win every match, not look at the table"

One of the participants in this weekend's KHL All-Star Game in Novosibirsk is Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod goalie Ivan Bocharov. On Saturday, his team - the Bobrov Division team - won 9-6 against the Tarasov Division in the semifinals and will play the Chernyshev Division in the finals on Sunday. Bocharov himself had a standout performance during the Master Show in the shootout competition - in one of the episodes, his young son Lev stood in the goal instead of him and kicked the puck after a shot by another Nizhny Novgorod player, Bogdan Konyushkov.

Ivan Bocharov himself is competing this season for Torpedo's primary goalie spot with Ivan Kulbakov and has played a number of standout games in the KHL, reminiscing about the best of times when he successfully played for his hometown Dynamo Moscow. But in 2022, the 29-year-old goalie left for Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, where he lost competition to Daniil Isaev, and last season he hardly took to the ice at all. In an interview with Izvestia, he explained why he started playing in Nizhny Novgorod again, told how his son started playing hockey, shared his impressions of working with two legends - Torpedo head coach Igor Larionov and goaltending coach Nikolai Khabilulin, and also talked about his impressions of the All-Star Game and the fight for the KHL playoffs.

- Tell me, how do you like it here? How did you come up with the idea to work on your number with your son? In general, how did he like it?

- Everything is great - great arena, good atmosphere, I'm glad to be a part of the Match of Stars. We won the semi-final, we are preparing for the final.

- How did you come up with the idea to put your son in goal for the shootout?

- Thanks to the Torpedo press office for suggesting it and coming up with it. I gladly agreed.

- Did you train him before all this?

- No, he became a goalkeeper after the New Year, he has been training at the school "Torpedo" for about two months. You can say that he is a beginning professional goalkeeper. His experience is not very long yet, but there is additional motivation for him to develop further.

- How old is he now?

- Six.

- How old were you when you started playing?

- I became a goalkeeper at the age of seven.

-So your son started even earlier?

- Nowadays trends are changing, and at the age of five there are already goalkeeper kids. And sometimes even at the age of three they just put them on skates. Everything is different now.

- Before going to the Torpedo school, how much time did your son train with you?

- He started skating closer to the age of five - probably at the age of four and a half. He did it with pleasure - that's the main thing. The most important thing here is not to kill interest in hockey in childhood. That's why we slowly let him down, and only this season he started practicing at school - just in Nizhny Novgorod there was a set of kids of his birth year.

- How do you like the new arena in Novosibirsk, where the KHL All-Star Game is held? Can you compare it with VTB Arena, the home stadium of your native Dynamo?

- Of course, VTB Arena is closer to me, because I am a Dynamo pupil. And for three seasons it was my home stadium. But Novosibirsk also has a wonderful arena. I am glad to be here. People in this city have always been great fans, just like in Nizhny Novgorod. And this Stars Match is no exception. The atmosphere is great.

- Have you already seen the new arena in Nizhny Novgorod, which is to be opened soon?

- Visually, yes, I have. They promise that by next season it will be ready and the team will move there. All Torpedo fans and players are waiting for the move to the new arena.

- At the expense of what you spend quite a quality current KHL season, essentially reborn after being in the deaf reserve in "Lokomotiv" and not the best recent years in "Dynamo".

- Not reborn, I guess, but just stepping out of the shadows. I went into the shadows last season, there was little game practice. And this season I managed to reach the same level. I just need to keep this level and play steadily.

- How hard is it to compete with Ivan Kulbakov? What prevents you from becoming a full-fledged number one, like in your best Dynamo years?

- I don`t really like it when they divide first and second number. My opinion - whoever wins more is the one who plays, and the division into first and second is for the fans and for those who discuss and argue on this topic.

- What new things have you seen this season from working with Torpedo goalie coach Nikolai Khabibulin?

- This is a new experience for me, every coach has his own vision. From the first day we found full contact and everything is great, I'm happy with him, I like him as a specialist and as a person. His main difference is that he individually adjusts to each goalkeeper. We can do the same exercise, but we perform the elements slightly differently.

- Does the current tournament situation, when Kunlun periodically comes up against you, stress you out a lot? Yes, now you have a good seven-point lead over Kunlun, but one bad series of games and the question of making the playoffs may hang in the balance again.

- No, it's not. It's an additional motivation, that Kunlun is getting closer - you've made a good point. We need to go out and win every game, not look at the table. Then everything will work out.

- A couple months ago, it seemed like Torpedo was confident going into the playoffs and could even compete for a higher spot in the regular season. What happened then that you lost a bunch of games, fell behind the top seven in the West, and you can't be sure you'll make the playoffs yet?

- We scored one less puck than our opponents. There were a lot of hard-fought games, but somewhere we lacked patience and, probably, luck. There were a lot of games where we had the lead and missed the win. But I do not hope, but I am sure that everything will be better now.

- The season before last, when Igor Larionov had just started working as Torpedo's head coach, he very vividly advertised healthy nutrition for athletes, bringing containers of raspberries and greens to press conferences. It was very vividly covered in the media, and some hockey players admitted that it was the first time they started to follow their nutrition in such detail. Are such procedures in Nizhny Novgorod a revelation for you this season?

- I already tried to be professional about my nutrition, my body and everything that concerns the training process. Of course, we are not all perfect, but it was not new to me - I tried to eat right before. The trend is changing, and many guys work with nutritionists. And in the summer they devote a lot of time to the training process while on vacation. We are getting closer to America in this, when we spend most of the off-season preparing ourselves for a new championship, and everyone becomes more professional