"Each team's goal to reach the playoffs should be set by default"

Last summer, the Sochi Hockey Club went through several radical personnel changes. Vyacheslav Kozlov, who was appointed head coach of the team in early June, was fired a month and a half later, without having played a single match or a single training session in this position. Such a reshuffle was associated with a change of leadership. The new managers brought Vladimir Krikunov, a 75-year-old former coach of the Russian national team, who has not worked in KHL teams since 2022, to the post of head coach.

Meanwhile, in August, problems began with the new CEO of Sochi, Igor Grigorenko, who was disqualified by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) for four years due to the presence of banned substances found in his doping sample from March 2015, when he was still a CSKA player. Grigorenko has filed an appeal, which has not yet been considered. Despite all the problems, the southern team got off to a good start in the new KHL season. At first, she only lost minimally to Spartak Moscow (3:4), and then won an away victory over Dynamo Moscow (3:2) following a shootout, losing 0:2 during regular time.

In an interview with Izvestia, one of the leaders of Sochi in recent years, striker Timur Hafizov, told how the numerous summer changes in the club's leadership affected the players, explained how the team could reach the playoffs for the first time since 2019, and also told about the hardest training sessions in his career while playing for Nizhnekamsk. "Neftekhimik".

— How did you manage to win against Dynamo?

— We had a good minority. We've been shooting a lot in this game. It's a lot for a match against an opponent like Dynamo. But, fortunately, we conceded only one goal in the minority, and we defended so well in unequal formations. It helped us to get a draw in regular time. And it's great that we won by shootout.

— How do you like the quality of the game in the first two matches? Is there any hope that you can improve your results compared to previous seasons?

— To be honest, even before the start of the championship, there were thoughts that we were joined by good hockey players. And yes, there is a feeling that we will improve this season. I already want something more than to finish the season in March when you don't make the playoffs.

— How can you compete for the playoffs?

— I repeat, due to the fact that we have been joined by players with good experience. Someone has already won the Gagarin Cup. Someone has a lot of experience playing in the playoffs. This should give us confidence and stability. Besides, our current coaching staff... Our head coach is probably the most experienced in world hockey. He has good assistants. All this gives us hope that we will succeed.

— As for the players with the Gagarin Cup, do you mean Pavel Dedunov?

— Well, yes. A man has won a Cup, he knows how to win. He shares his experience with us.

"I trained almost seven days a week in the offseason"

CSKA hockey player Vitaly Abramov talks about recovery from injury, a successful start to the KHL season and the new coaching staff of the team

— A question about the head coach. What did you see new in working with Krikunov over the past preseason?

— He clearly informs us that in every match it is necessary to play every episode to the end, all 60 minutes. That's why we won back with Dynamo from 0:2 in the third period. Vladimir Vasilyevich is constantly involved in working with us, all the time forcing us to add and squeeze everything out of ourselves. He constantly reminds us that we can add to ourselves, find some internal reserves. It keeps us on our toes and helps us, especially in difficult moments.

— Pavel Dedunov said this summer there were no "balloon exercises" at the training camp — strength training when a heavy car tire is placed on the ice, a hockey player sits on it, and another player carries this load on belts — which for many years have been Krikunov's signature feature. Were there any heavy loads without them?

- yes. But I think the preseason is always a heavy workload. You always have to work very hard in the summer. There are no hockey players who find everything easy. We had a very good job on the ground, and there was intense work on the ice. And there were no cylinders, I can confirm that.

— Were these the hardest training camps in your career?

- no. In his youth, he hooked the time of Andrei Viktorovich Nazarov in Nizhnekamsk. The hardest training camps were there.

— What was difficult there?

— There was such a thing as a "ladder". When you're running upstairs in a 20-kilogram vest. And you do 10 laps of the race on the ice in it. If someone asks about hard training, I immediately remember this exercise.

— Was your team affected by the situation with the changes of coaches and managers last summer?

— I can't answer for all the guys in the team. But I can say for myself that our job is to go out on the ice and play. And what happens above in the club's structure does not depend on us. For us, the most important thing is to do our work efficiently, and then how will it turn out.

— Vyacheslav Kozlov did not spend a single day with the team, as he was appointed and dismissed before the start of training camp. Have you ever had a chance to communicate with him remotely as the head coach of Sochi?

— No, I didn't have time.

— Is reaching the playoffs a mandatory task for Sochi?

— Yes, I think that every team should have this task by default at the beginning of the season. And we are no exception. We will try to bite in every match with every opponent and reach the playoffs. The city is waiting for this.

— In the first two matches of the season, all the teams that were predicted to be at the bottom of the Western Conference table got off to a good start. Sochi, Shanghai Dragons, Torpedo and Lada have already defeated their top rivals. Can we say that you have no right to make mistakes if you want to reach the playoffs?

— Pasha Dedunov told us in the locker room that the playoffs had already started for us from the first match. In fact, it is. For our team, every match is like in the playoffs right now. Therefore, it is necessary to fight with all our might to win any game from the very beginning of the season.