"We need to find stability and win matches more regularly"

Traktor Chelyabinsk has significantly updated its squad after reaching the Gagarin Cup finals in the spring. Before the current KHL season, 10 new hockey players joined its ranks. Among them is striker Mikhail Grigorenko, Olympic champion in 2018, three—time winner of the Gagarin Cup with CSKA Moscow, who played for SKA St. Petersburg last championship.

So far, the Ural team has been unstable — five wins and six losses in the first 11 matches, five points behind the leading Omsk Avangard in the Eastern Conference. In an interview with Izvestia, Grigorenko appreciated the start of his team, talked about adapting to a new club for himself, commented on the signing of Evgeny Kuznetsov by Magnitogorsk Metallurg and told which of the SKA home arenas in St. Petersburg he liked more.

— How would you rate the team's results in the first month of the season?

— Unstable game play and results. In some places we're doing well, in others we're not. We need to find stability and win matches more regularly.

— Alexander Kadeikin spoke about the difficulties due to the fact that half of the team that remained from last season knows the requirements of the head coach, and the half that came in the summer have just started to get acquainted with them. Is there such a desynchronization in actions?

— I don't think that's a problem. But there are certain nuances in such a situation, of course. As Alexander said in his interview, someone adapts to a new team faster, someone needs more time to adapt. Some guys at Traktor are actually new people in the league. Yes, it takes time for all this, but it seems to me that all the players in our team understood the coach's requirements and accepted them. Therefore, we just need to continue working as we have been working. And it will get better from now on.

— Did you see something new in working with Benoit Groux that you had not encountered before?

— A North American coach with a North American approach. We're going through a lot of details with him and his staff. In principle, I came across a similar way of working when I was playing overseas.

— The other day, Metallurg signed a contract with Evgeny Kuznetsov, with whom you recently played in SKA, until the end of the season. Do you believe that he will still show his best hockey?

- of course. Last year he was the leader of SKA. I scored points in almost every game. There is no doubt that he can perform well this season. He's only 33 years old. He is a master, a top player. I hope everything will work out for him, and Evgeny will show his best game.

— Will the confrontation between the two teams of the Chelyabinsk region — yours and his — get even more flavor now?

— I haven't participated in these derbies yet, so I don't know (smiles). In any case, good luck to my wife.

— Traktor has an away match in St. Petersburg with Shanghai Dragons this weekend, at the 23,000-seat SKA Arena, which was your home for part of last season. Are you surprised how a new club, also formally Chinese, quickly began to gather 8 thousand spectators in a new city?

— They have a good team, so the audience is coming. And the arena is great. It's great that the KHL team is playing there (SKA returned to its old 12,000-home Ice Palace in the offseason — Izvestia). It's a pleasure to come there and play. Last season, this arena was my home for a couple of months. It will be nice to be back there.

— During the year of playing for SKA, which of the home stadiums in St. Petersburg did you like playing at the most — the new SKA Arena or the old Ice Palace, where the team spent the first half of last season and returned to this season?

— I liked the SKA Arena better. In terms of changing rooms and other conditions.