"I came to Severstal like I was in first grade, listening to the coach with my mouth open."

The hockey players of Cherepovets Severstal have been delighting the public with beautiful combination hockey for the third season in a row, which head coach Andrey Kozyrev, who led the team in 2023, sets for them. In the first two years, with a small budget, the club confidently reached the KHL playoffs, where it was eliminated both times in the first round by Spartak Moscow.

In the current regular season, Severstal is also at the top of the standings — fourth place in the Western Conference after more than a third of the matches played. Before this season, defender Nikita Kamalov, known for playing for Amur Khabarovsk, SKA St. Petersburg and Metallurg Magnitogorsk, joined Cherepovets. In an interview with Izvestia, he told what he saw new in working with Kozyrev, appreciated Severstal's recent results and spoke about the chances of playing in the playoffs better than in the last two seasons.

— How does Severstal get into the top 4 of the West?

— We try to play our hockey, we don't deviate from it. We carry out the coaching setup. We realize our chances, and overall we score a lot of goals. And due to this, we are at the top of the conference table.

— Do you have a feeling that after your October eight-match winning streak, your rivals have become tougher in their attitude towards Severstal?

— No, they've been tuning in well, and they're still tuning in. Our team has been playing this kind of hockey for several seasons now. And everyone knows exactly what to expect from Severstal. Therefore, they tune in well to us.

— Are you satisfied with Severstal's current position in the table?

— We want more, that's all I can say.

"What do you want?" The first place in the West?

- no. We just want to keep it simple and win every game.

— What do you mean, "from simplicity"?

— Don't make things up, keep it simple, do the job that the head coach requires of us. Play hockey and shoot pucks.

— It seemed that your head coach Andrey Kozyrev has been playing difficult combination hockey for Severstal for all three seasons. How are you going to play from a simple one?

— Well, it's about not making up anything unnecessary. And to do what the coaching staff requires of us. And not to think of something from yourself. To act within the framework of the coaching setup — Andrey Leonidovich and his assistants have already thought of everything, and we have to do it.

"We want to reconstruct the football stadium and build an ice arena"

Alexey Texler, Governor of the Chelyabinsk Region, announced plans to prepare the Chelyabinsk FC infrastructure for the requirements of the RPL and create a new sports palace for the hockey Tractor in the KHL.

— As someone who came to Kozyrev's Severstal just before this season, tell us how unusual are the requirements that exist in Cherepovets for you?

— The approach and hockey are as different as possible than in all my previous teams. My horizons are now expanding as much as possible — it's very cool, interesting, informative and, as we can see from the results of the team, effective. In 27 years of hockey, starting from kindergarten, I have not seen this. Since I came to first grade, I've been sitting and listening with my mouth open and trying to absorb everything that the Severstal coaching staff is telling us. And I try to do it.

— What requirements have become new for the defender?

— Don't hold the puck, but pass. Not to skate with her, but to pass faster to a teammate. And take it away from the opponent with a stick.

— During Kozyrev's two and a half years at the head of Severstal, a stereotype has developed about him as a man who forbids his players to use force techniques.

— There is no such thing.

Kozyrev's move: Severstal became the leader of the Western Conference

The possible return of Ivan Morozov, a participant in the doping scandal, the failure of SKA and other major KHL events

— So it's not by chance that you were invited to Severstal, despite the fact that last season you were one of the KHL leaders in power techniques? Can we say that Kozyrev is not against this?

— I don't mind. If the situation requires the use of force, then why not.

— Do you believe that with this style of play, Severstal is able to go beyond the first round of the playoffs?

— Yes, I do. I wouldn't be at Severstal if I didn't see the prospects for the team.