"First we have to make the playoffs, and then we'll talk about our chances there."
At the Channel One Cup held in St. Petersburg, in addition to the traditional participants in the form of teams from Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, this year an experimental KHL World Team made up of Continental Hockey League legionnaires played. Its head coach was the famous Mike Keenan, ex-coach of Metallurg Magnitogorsk. The Canadian was assisted by his compatriot Mike Pelino, who also worked as an assistant for several KHL teams, head coach of the Chinese Kunlun Red Star Mikhail Kravets and coach of the Vladivostok Admiral Leonid Tambiyev.
In an interview with Izvestia, Leonid Tambiyev shared his impressions of working with Keenan, explained why he complained about Admiral's tough calendar, and told how much he earned as an SKA hockey player in the late Soviet years.
- What are your impressions of working at the Channel One Cup in the KHL World Team headquarters?
- Great. I'm very happy to have been at this tournament and to have worked in such a coaching staff, it's a great honor for me. It was very nice to get the experience of working with such a specialist as Mike Keenan. It was worth coming to St. Petersburg for that alone. And that's not to mention the fact that the tournament itself was very good - both in terms of organization and the quality of play of the teams, taking into account that most of them in their current squads are either meeting for the first time or don't often play together. And to play in the presence of more than 20 thousand spectators, as it was at the match with Russia, was a pleasure.
- What experience have you gained from working with Keenan?
- I can't even name one thing. You can watch him and learn from everything. Attention to details, team building, building relationships with hockey players, with the staff, with members of the coaching staff. In general, it's amazing how modest he is with his regalia. Mike has won the Stanley Cup, the Gagarin Cup, worked with outstanding hockey players. And yet he talks to you as an equal, listens to your ideas, even demands that you share your thoughts on tactics, links, special teams of the majority and minority, on the characteristics of each individual hockey player. It was a very useful cooperation for me personally.
- Don't you think you and Keenan are similar? You're also considered a motivator, like Mike in his best years, while being pretty tough on the players.
- I won't comment on who they think I am. But personally, I didn't see Mike as tough in the days I worked with him. Yeah, he's a demanding coach. But he knows how to build relationships with the team. One of the things I noticed was the way Keenan takes an interest in the hockey players, whether they're doing well. Not only in the locker room and on the ice, but also off the ice. He wonders how their families are doing, whether their wives and children, who came to St. Petersburg for the tournament to cheer on their teammates, are doing okay. And so on with everyone. He dives very deeply into the players' affairs to understand not only the game, but also the psychological state of each player.
- And this is in relation to players with whom he has only worked for a few days and will most likely never cross paths again?
- Yes, it's both astounding and admirable. He's done a great job of bringing together a disparate team that was assembled from scratch. I think if we had all worked together a little longer - at least a week before the tournament - we would have performed much better. We would have had a ready-made national team. As it was, we could see certain developments and potential, but, unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to show the best results at the First Channel Cup. But at the same time, given the limited time for preparation and the fact that most of the players were on the ice for the first time as part of the same team, Mike did a strong job. And a lot of it was due to that attention to detail I mentioned.
- You said he didn't act very tough. But in Russia, most people who know Keenan judge him by the way he brought up Alexei Kovalev in the New York Rangers for overplaying his shifts, forcing him to play five minutes in a row in one game. Would you do that to your player?
- It's a different time now. Don't forget: that episode happened more than 30 years ago. In the 1990s there were some methods, now there are others. And Mike knows how to build relationships with hockey players, as I witnessed. The man has worked with such great players as Mark Messier, Wayne Gretzky, and many others. And he knows exactly how to behave in any given situation.
- Have you had a particularly tough coach in your playing career?
- Well, I've played under a lot of coaches. There were different specialists. Although, when I played in Germany (for Iserlohn Roosters in 2000-2001 - Ed.), there was an American (Greg Poss. - Ed.), who can be singled out especially. He was always yelling at the players in such a way that probably the whole city could hear (laughs). He can be singled out.
- What do you think of SKA Arena?
- Great impressions. Again, it's a special pleasure to play when more than 20,000 people are watching you. It's great that Russia has such an arena. I'm not talking about the conditions for the participants, about the locker rooms. At least our locker room had everything for preparation, recovery and so on. Everything that is needed in modern hockey for proper work.
- It amazes you how much hockey infrastructure has grown in St. Petersburg since the times when you played for SKA?
- Come on, it's incomparable. Just working at Keenan's staff in the KHL World Team, Misha Kravets and I were reminiscing about those times. I was just a youngster, under 20, and he was already experienced, constantly playing in the core. And we remembered that back then there was not only a new 20-thousand-seat arena, there was no 12-thousand-seat Ice Palace, where SKA played in recent years. Back then, Yubileiny was the main arena in Leningrad. It's not bad even now, and in 1989-1990 it seemed something incredible against the background of most Soviet arenas. For me, who came from Riga, for sure. We didn't play there very often, though. Mostly we played and practiced in the complex on Zhdanovka, as I remember now, the ice was on the third floor. Since then, in terms of infrastructure, of course, the city has made incredible strides forward.
- Few people, by the way, remember that SKA was a pretty poor club in the 1990s and early 2000s. How much could you earn playing hockey in Leningrad back then?
- I used to earn 50 rubles. I had a special case, though - I was sent to Leningrad as part of my army service. So I didn't have to complain about my salary (smiles).
- What could you buy with 50 rubles back then?
- You could go to a restaurant once. So, in general, you can't get fancy. But I didn't complain, because I got the main thing - the opportunity to train and play hockey.
- On December 8, you and Admiral played an away game against Amur in Khabarovsk, after which you flew to St. Petersburg to work with the KHL World Team. You finished on December 15, flew to the Far East to play with Amur again on the 17th, and two days later you already had a match in Moscow against Dynamo. Was working with Keenan worth the three flights across Russia in a week and a half?
- Well, let's not forget that this is my third season with the Admirals. I'm already used to the Far East and the logistics involved. I understand how to withstand it, to be mentally and physically ready for it. That's why I gladly flew to St. Petersburg when I was invited to work with the KHL World Team. Moreover, it's a good way to switch, to reboot yourself during a very busy season. Let's just say that I went for fresh impressions, so that I could plunge into my work at Admiral with new strength in the conditions of a tight calendar, when there is match after match.
- Speaking of the calendar. A number of colleagues have noticed a tendency: in the past two seasons you refused on principle to explain any problems with long flights. Even suppressed these conversations at press conferences. This season you have referred several times to complicated logistics. Why did you change your approach?
- Yes, I've long had the position that it's not worth it to refer to hours-long flights. If you agreed to work in Vladivostok, accept the situation as it is. Moreover, we can't influence the geography. That's why I forbade to talk about it both to myself and the team. But this season I looked at the statements of some opponents when they started complaining about eight-hour flights to the Far East. Opponents who fly to us once during the regular season! You know, right? So I thought: if we fly like this all season, why don't we say anything? Why don't we let ourselves speak out? How are we worse? (laughs). So I mentioned a couple of times at press conferences, in what conditions our guys play in, under what calendar. And they should be worshipped in general for the fact that they win in such a mode and stay in the playoff zone.
- Didn't it get easier this season when the KHL made more pauses in the calendar, stretching 68 regular season games over seven months instead of six?
- It's not felt yet, Admiral still played a lot of games in the first half of the season. We played, if I'm not mistaken, 12 games or more in the month before the break for the First Channel Cup. After the pause, as you yourself noticed, there was a match in Khabarovsk, and two days later in Moscow, two more days later in St. Petersburg against SKA, and two more days later in Novosibirsk against Siberia. You see for yourself what the guys have to go through.
- Maybe closer to the end of the regular season the calendar will be easier, and that will give you a competitive advantage in the fight for the playoffs.
- Maybe. I guess it will have to have an impact somehow. For now, we're working in the conditions we have.
- Even before the end of the previous regular season, when there was almost no chance of making the playoffs, the Admirals signed you to a new contract for two years. Does such trust motivate you?
- Yes, I'm very grateful to Oleg Nikolaevich Kozhemyako, the governor of Primorsky Krai, for showing such an attitude towards me. It's clear that it didn't come out of nowhere, after all, a lot of work was done in the first season, the best playoff result in Admiral's history and in the history of Far East hockey in general. This trust motivates us to keep working, to make the city happy again. Moreover, I see how the team is treated. With what attention and love Oleg Nikolaevich treats us and hockey in general, how he is immersed in the club's affairs and the development of sports in general in the region during his busy schedule. And we should mention our fans, who constantly fill the Fetisov Arena, support us and create a unique atmosphere. As I heard, for the next home game against Sibiria, which will be on December 28, almost all tickets are already sold out. This imposes certain obligations to do our job in a way that would not be a shame.
- How do you assess the chances of repeating the success of the season before last?
- Now is not the time to evaluate the chances, to make predictions. First we have to make the playoffs, and then we'll talk about the chances. In any case, I see that Admiral is capable of a lot, that the guys are talented. And with the right attitude, they can achieve great results.
