"We can find a replacement for the departed SKA players"

The tour of the Russian national hockey team, which took place during the May holidays, has ended. In the last game in Minsk, our team defeated Belarus (3:1), which it had previously lost three times in a row — 2:4 in Astana, 7:8 in overtime and 1:3 in Tolyatti. And the Russians started this tour with a 4-1 win over Kazakhstan.

In an interview with Izvestia, Pavel Dedunov, forward of the Russian national team and SKA St. Petersburg, commented on the team's results in the tour, assessed the upcoming changes in the club's lineup and spoke about Ivan Demidov's debut in the NHL.

— What do you attribute the failures of the Russian national team in most of the matches of the tour against Belarus?

— Somewhere something didn't work out - they couldn't score some important goal, a dirty goal. That's probably why the result is like this. Perhaps it's also because there are a lot of guys from Dinamo Minsk playing in the Belarusian national team, who just had a good KHL playoff, reached the second round and finished the season later than us. From here, they have a little more preserved game tone. But it is what it is. We try to play in the conditions that are available.

— Can you call matches with such strong Belarusians a good test for the Russian national team in its current form?

— Now any games for the national team are a good experience. In the absence of matches with other national teams, you should take advantage of the opportunity to play against Kazakhstan and Belarus. The very fact of such games is already a good result. You just have to win them, not lose them. Then it will be even better.

— Recently, Roman Rotenberg's SKA headquarters underwent a reshuffle, Evgeny Koreshkov, who worked with forwards, left, Konstantin Shafranov, who worked with the minority last season, returned to work with the majority. This updated staff has already worked with the national team during the tour. What changes have you felt during this time?

— It's hard to say anything specific yet. But everyone in this headquarters and in the team knows each other, plus or minus. So let's get used to it and work together. In principle, nothing unusual happened here. In hockey, it often happens that both players and coaches change. Either the players and coaches remain the same, but their functions change. Like Konstantin Valeryevich Shafranov, who was involved in the special brigades of the majority for several years, he was transferred to the minority last season, and now he is mostly working with the majority again. We will prepare for next season in new combinations, get used to them. And I think it will bring results. Let's see how these changes inside the headquarters will affect. Still, it's too early to talk about this tour of the national team, since the squad is different from the one in SKA.

— There will already be major changes in the SKA squad, as such important players from last season as Evgeny Kuznetsov, Alexander Nikishin, Ivan Demidov, Arseniy Gritsyuk and Zakhar Bardakov have left. How will the team rebuild without them?

— Those guys who left made their choice. They want to try their hand at the NHL. I would like to wish them good luck so that everything goes well there. This is a very serious challenge for each of them. This is also a good challenge for us. We will not be able to succeed, to win the Gagarin Cup, if we look back. We need to move forward. We will have other guys in the squad with whom we will go further. The club has a positive attitude for next season. I think the SKA coaching staff and management will draw certain conclusions and find someone on the market to strengthen the team. It is within the power of the club to find a replacement for the departed players.

— Have you seen Demidov's first matches for the Montreal Canadiens in the losing NHL playoff series against the Washington Capitals?

— Anyway, well done for taking the risk and going to Montreal. Overall, he looked good in the Washington series for a young guy who just joined the team. Scored a goal, made assists. Now he still has to adapt to the team before the next season. He will still need time to show his best hockey in the NHL on a regular basis. But Ivan is a very talented hockey player and a real hard worker. That's why I believe in his success. In general, all the guys who have now gone from SKA to the NHL are distinguished by their efficiency and stubbornness: Demidov, Nikishin, Gritsyuk, and Bardakov. Even if some of them fail at first, they will still succeed due to their desire and diligence. I'm sure of it.

— Who will you support in the upcoming Gagarin Cup final between Lokomotiv Yaroslavl and Traktor Chelyabinsk?

— You know, I've stopped watching hockey altogether. And in recent days I have been focused on preparing for the national team tour and playing in it. In the Gagarin Cup, I mostly follow only individual guys in different teams with whom I am friends. As it is, I stopped rooting for someone, because after our departure from the playoffs, there was devastation, when they seemed to be fighting, but something did not work out. Therefore, I abstracted from hockey for the time between departure from Dynamo and arrival to the national team. And in the KHL playoffs, I only watch goals anymore, I watch it neutrally. And I won't even name the finale's favorite. But in any case, the strongest will win.

— Will you watch the finale?

— I'll probably watch the finale. But first, I'll give my attention to my children, my wife, and my parents. Because I've been away from my family all season. And my children are growing up. Parents... They're growing too. (He smiles.) It is very important to pay attention to all of them and be with them.

— How many children do you have?

"Two." One is nine years old, the other is three years old.

— You said that you worry about individual friends in other teams. Which of the Gagarin Cup finalists has more of them?

— There's probably enough in both teams, so we'll split it in half. In the same "Locomotive" there is Lyosha Bereglazov, with whom we won the Gagarin Cup as part of the "Avangard". There is Vasya Glotov at Traktor, who played with us in SKA a few months ago. But besides them, there are a lot of guys in both clubs that I will worry about.