Oleg Leontyev: «We know the things we should work on»

Press Conference «Neftekhimik – Severstal» 09/06/2023

Neftekhimik head coach Oleg Leontyev:

– We were preparing for this game. We did not expect this outcome in the first period. The opponent was moving fast. We knew that their team is good at short passing. It is not easy to win when you give this kind of advantage to the opponent. Fortunately, we know the things we should work on.

– Your team started with 4 lines and then changed it to 3. Did you have any complaints to the young guys or did you want to let experienced hockey players handle this?

– This happens often. It is obvious that the guys who played in a right way are on the ice. This is the reason for changes like this. It is clear that young players do not always play the way you want them to. They need more time to adjust to this league.

– As you know, the next game is against CSKA. How difficult will it be for the coaching staff to decide who is going to be a starter goaltender?

– For some reason, the goaltenders position has become a problem. You know, both our goaltenders are quite experienced, they know how to prepare for the season; they played a lot of games in the KHL.

Severstal head coach Andrei Kozyrev:

– After the last game in Moscow, we really wanted to win. We did our best to win. We had a good start. The opposing team tried to tie the game up. We conceded two unnecessary goals and kept our advantage to the very end. Our goaltender Kostya Shostak kept us in the game. I would like to congratulate our young player Mikhail Ilyin on his first KHL goal.