PRESS CONFERENCE «AK BARS – NEFTEKHIMIK» 02/16/2022
16.02.2022
Press conference «Ak Bars – Neftekhimik»
Oleg Leontyev, the head coach of HC Neftekhimik:– It was a great tournament! I would like to thank organizers of the tournament for inviting us! We played against strong teams and, in principle, we are satisfied with the results, except for today's second period. We saw our mistakes, there is something to work on and this is the most important thing!
About today’s game: we played well in the first period. In the second period, some guys were too nervous. We lost this game due to our own mistakes. Nevertheless, our young goaltender made his debut, it’s a good thing!
– If we go back to the second period, do you remember a 0 –5 score in your career? About Ruslan Petrishchev, it seems that it is not his fault, but he got +/- (-2)!
– Yes, we have some questions for our defensemen, such mistakes are made out of nothing. This is unacceptable. You have to play confidently and reliably, you should read the play two steps ahead. While Ruslan is in our team, I have not seen this kind of play. He scored two great goals against Dynamo Moscow. There are failures, it is par of our job. It all depends on the focus on the game, you should be ready to play.
– Another interesting fact: Neftekhimik did not score any power play goals, but Leshchenko scored shorthanded goal. And basically all the goals were scored at even strength today and in the games against Severstal and Lokomotiv.
– You are right, I know there are things to work on. Traktor is watching us, so I won't reveal all our secrets. Although, we had good goal-scoring chances on the power play in the previous game and today. Ak Bars goaltender Bobkov played great today, he deserved to be recognized as the best goaltender of the tournament, congratulations to him! We will work on our mistakes.
– When the score on the scoreboard was 1–4 it seemed that Artyukhin was trying fire up the team, he made good hits, am I right? After signing Artyukhin, you pointed out his physical play.
– In this season, every hockey player who came during the regular season made a great contribution, and Evgeny Artyukhin too. In this game, there was no special task to play aggressively. Of course, he is an experienced player, he must fire the team up, take a leadership, this is the reason he is in our team.
– Vyacheslav Leshchenko has a phenomenal start in Neftekhimik, he scored 8 goals! Why did it happened?
– He has great potential. I don’t know why he did not succesed in other teamsHe joined our team with a great desire and inspiration to play! Since the first game, Vyacheslav played like, it’s just a pleasure to watch the way he play!
– When will Klok and Knot arrive?
– We had a conversation with Lukas and Ronald today.Unfortunately, we have not received an answer to this question. We will make it clear in the near future. Lukas said that he wants to return to Neftekhimik as soon as possible.
– Frans Tuohimaa is at the Olympics, but he doesn't play. Is it bother you that he has not been playing for a long time?
– They also have a training camp there, so he is working, I don't worry about it.
