"It is necessary to fight not with Neftekhimik, but with Admiral for the seventh place"

In the KHL regular season, the teams have four to five matches left. All the playoff participants from the Western Conference are already known. It remains to determine two more teams from Vostochnaya that will play in the Gagarin Cup. The Vladivostok Admiral is unlikely to miss one of these vacancies. But with the latter, an intrigue suddenly arose. Until recently, it seemed that Novosibirsk Siberia would occupy it.

But since mid-February, the team has been in a prolonged crisis. Of the last 10 matches, only one has been won, and two more have scored one point each as a result of overtime defeats and shootouts. The last three matches were lost to the clubs from the bottom of the table, which have already lost their chances of getting into the playoffs - Astana Barys (1:4), Tolyatti Lada (0:1 after a shootout) and Balashikha Vityaz (1:3).

As a result, five matches before the finish, Siberia, which closes the top eight of the East, runs the risk of not getting into the playoffs, as Nizhnekamsk Neftekhimik came close to it. At the same time, there was a scandal with team leader Taylor Beck, who went to the locker room long before the end of the recent match with Ak Bars (3-6). The head coach of "Siberia" Vadim Epanchintsev called it a demarche. In an interview with Izvestia, the club's general manager Viktor Merkulov spoke about the behavior of the Canadian striker, commented on the current gaming crisis and talked about ways out of it.

— Are any radical personnel measures and tough meetings planned in connection with the recent failures of Siberia?

— Meetings, of course, will be held. We'll talk to the guys and the coaching staff about this. There will be no drastic measures now. The situation is such that we need to get together and fight in every match. To fight to the end, and not so that you play, you play, something didn't go well, and that's it — you dropped your hands. We have to go out and fight in every match. Then the result will come. Yes, there are downturns, but you have to work through them.

— A month ago, it seemed that Siberia would not miss a place in the playoffs. In January and early February, there was a series of 12 consecutive matches with points scored. Why did everything collapse later?

— This season we have had more than once when good episodes alternated with unsuccessful ones. The situations were different. The same series you're talking about... We started it in January and finished it in mid-February, when we played two good games against Lada after the All-Star break." (4:1; 4:1). Then it almost went wrong with Magnitogorsk - they seemed to be playing well, but they lost (2:5). Then we lost outrageously to Avtomobilist (0:5), and this confidence disappeared somewhere. The guys need to find and feel it again now. But again, as I said earlier, this can only be done through work — walking, climbing on a dime, where it hurts. It is necessary to bleed from the nose to achieve results.

— Even after the February defeats, it seemed that the March calendar in the form of an away series with Barys, Lada and Vityaz would allow Siberia to maintain a comfortable lead over Neftekhimik. But in the end, only one point was scored in these matches. Was there any calmness in front of them?

— I can't say for sure about calmness. I didn't have any peace of mind. And it is necessary to fight not with the "Petrochemist", but with the "Admiral". Not for eighth or ninth place, but to try to climb to seventh and higher. Moreover, as you correctly noted, our calendar was convenient for this. "Barys", "Lada", "Vityaz" — go out and achieve the result. But something didn't work out for the guys. Therefore, this is the result.

— How did they react to Taylor Beck's demarche during the match with Ak Bars, when he left the court before the end of the meeting, referring to the fact that otherwise he would have received a large fine?

— Of course, there was a conversation with Beck. This behavior is unacceptable. Taylor then apologized for his behavior to the team, to the coaches, to us — to the entire leadership of the club. And in front of the fans, of course. His emotions overwhelmed him at that moment — he did not want to harm the team and did so. It certainly doesn't make him feel good. He is a professional and must do his job well.

— Do you have a feeling that you and the head coach are in control of him, and in the remaining matches you will be able to squeeze the desired result out of him?

— We're trying to squeeze it out. We talk, even after that situation. And we communicate in other moments besides those that everyone has seen. And it's obvious from him that he's trying. But it's not working for him either, unfortunately. When it doesn't work for the leaders, it's passed on to others, respectively.

— What should be done to overcome this?

— Everyone needs to get together, think about their behavior, look in the mirror. And work, work, and work again.

— It's strange to ask this now, but in the history of the KHL there have been cases when clubs went to drastic changes like the resignation of the head coach before crucial matches for reaching the playoffs in order to shake up the team. Is something like this possible in relation to Epanchintseva?

— We won't say anything, but it's unlikely that anything will change yet.