"Six regular season matches against one team is too much"

Dynamo Moscow is in second place in the Western Conference of the KHL regular season. Two weeks before the end of the tournament, the team has seven matches left, after which the blue and white will begin playing in the playoffs. In recent weeks, Alexey Kudashov's team has suffered two painful setbacks in the form of home defeats from the conference outsider Sochi (3:5) and Dinamo Minsk (0:5), but then beat the regular season leader Yaroslavl Lokomotiv (3:1) and St. Petersburg SKA (1:0)., and the Chinese Kunlun Red Star (6:3) and Yekaterinburg Avtomobilist (4:1) defeated at home.

In an interview with Izvestia, Dynamo Moscow defender Artyom Sergeev explained the reasons for the team's unstable results, told how important it is to keep second place in the West, and also suggested the best option for the KHL season calendar.

— Why has Dynamo had such a contrast in results in recent weeks?

— It's not just like that. There are no accidents. We had problems playing against teams from the bottom seeding and even the bottom of the table. Hence the defeat of Minsk, which was in seventh place at that time, although now it is clear what a strong team it is, it has since issued a powerful winning streak and is already behind us. But it was still unacceptable to lose to them at home 0:5. And I'm not talking about the match with Sochi at all.

In this sense, of the last four wins, the match against Kunlun was no less important than the others, because we finally managed to play well with the team from the bottom and win, which added to our good mood. And this good mood has already been transferred to the match with Avtomobilist, which we managed to win even taking into account the fact that the opponent played well, even very well. He had some chances at our goal, but there was a Motor somewhere (goalkeeper Maxim Motorygin. — Ed.) He dragged me, and somewhere the guys on the defensive caught the puck. We need to keep this pace in order to be as ready as possible for the playoffs.

— Can we say that in February there were problems with the attitude of the teams from the bottom of the table?

— Yes, yes, yes. But in the game with Kunlun, we reversed this trend.

— Do you agree that the team has already been thinking about the playoffs, where it will be necessary to play with other opponents, such as Lokomotiv and SKA, whom you beat?

— Well, of course. We're already in the playoffs. And we already understand that we are preparing for it. It's not like our heads are already there, but there are still thoughts somewhere that the playoffs are coming soon and we need to prepare for it.

— Is it important for Dynamo to keep the second place in the West, or does it make no difference from which position to enter the playoffs?

— We need to start from ourselves. To play steadily and not lose the confidence that we have now. So that you don't have to struggle out of various bad situations after one or two games and be in a good mood, on the positive side.

— With the kind of game that you showed in the winning matches against Lokomotiv, SKA and Avtomobilist, can you set serious goals for the playoffs? Can such hockey be called close to the model for Dynamo?

— Close to the sample — yes, 100%.

— Do you follow your possible opponents in the first round?

—Not really. To be honest, I don't even know who's fighting for what. It's clear that everything is tight inside the playoff zone right now, and no one can really figure out which pairs will be in the first round in the West. Therefore, it makes no sense to talk about a future opponent yet.

— And the prospect of getting to SKA, which is in seventh place, what kind of emotions does it cause?

"I don't know if that's a plus or a minus.

— But aren't you tired of playing with SKA this season? In the current regular season, you had six matches with them.

— Yes, in principle, six matches with the same team in one regular season is a bit much.

— With any opponent?

— Yes, of course. We need to play 68 games in the regular season right now. If you remove these six games between the two teams from the calendar, then you get 64 matches for each club. This is optimal, I think. Just start the season later, make fewer pauses within the season — I think it will be great. And six games between two teams in the regular season is too much.

— So you're suggesting that we play 64 matches each, so that the season starts in the middle, not the beginning of September, as it is now, but also ends at the end of May?

- yes. And you need fewer pauses, fewer gaps between games.