"For us, the playoffs have been a long time coming."

A month before the end of the regular season, there is at least a slight semblance of intrigue in the fight for the playoffs only with regard to three vacancies - one in the Western Conference and two in the Eastern Conference. In the East, Novosibirsk's Sibir and Vladivostok's Admiral can't quite feel at ease yet. With 12 games left in the regular season, they are eight and ten points ahead of their nearest pursuers, Neftekhimik Nizhnekamsk and Lada Togliatti, respectively.

"Siberia" has recently had a successful series of 12 matches with points, but the last three meetings defeated crushingly - at home to Magnitogorsk "Metallurg" (2:5) and Ekaterinburg "Avtomobilist" (0:5), away to Moscow "Spartak" (2:6). In an interview with Izvestia, Novosibirsk club forward Valentin Pyanov explained the reasons for the failures and told us what the team needs to improve on to be successful in the playoffs, which start on March 26.

- Do you still hope to compete for a higher place? Or is the main thing now to keep the seventh line in the East?

- We don't play to hold on. We go to every game to play to win. Somewhere we succeed, somewhere we don't. Unfortunately, in the last three games we haven't been able to do it. It's hard to say why. Probably, we don`t show enough aggression, and because of that we lose. We need to fix it, because every point is worth its weight in gold. And in any case we hope to climb as high as possible.

- Before this three-game losing streak, Siberia had 12 games in a row when it scored points either by winning or not losing in regulation time. What has disappeared in your game since then, leading you to your current failures?

- I wouldn't say something has disappeared. It's just that in some moments, bad luck happens. In addition, we started to play poorly in the minority. When the opponent plays an extra man, he intelligently analyzes us and punishes us for our shortcomings. We should not allow it. As I said, we need more aggression. We need to go into every game like it's the last fight. The playoffs have already started for us. We have to keep playing, and we can't relax.

- Isn't it the case that you've already started preparing for the playoffs early, when you've almost secured a playoff spot?

- We haven't secured anything yet. We can talk about preparing for the playoffs only when we get so many points away from our competitors that they lose all chances to catch up with us. But for now we don't have that, so we can't relax or think about preparing for the elimination series.

- Do you still seriously believe that you can be overtaken by Admiral and Neftekhimik or Lada at the same time?

- Well, I'll say it again, we have to play every game to win. Then we'll be sure that we'll make the playoffs. There are still a lot of games ahead. Anything can happen, but we have to start from ourselves - we don't have to look at who's behind us, how many points the gap is. If we want to climb higher, we have to fight in every game and win. Is that right? I think it's right.

- February is coming to an end now. For many years, this was the period when the regular season ended and the playoffs began, but this season it's going to happen a month later. Have you gotten used to it? Isn't it your habit to start thinking about the playoffs in February?

- Yeah, yeah, sure. It's still noticeable that the pauses in the regular season are a little longer. But the calendar is the way it is. We can adjust to any schedule. We just go out and work.

- What does Siberia need to improve on in the remaining month of the regular season to be successful in the playoffs?

- In aggression, creating and realizing chances - shoot more, score more. It's all banal.