VYACHESLAV BUTSAYEV: “IN ORDER TO WIN, WE SHOULD STUDY THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF OUR COMPETITORS”
20.08.2019
Rinat Sharifyanov:
- Our meeting takes place on the eve of the opening of the 12th season of the KHL, which begins on 1st of September with the opening game between CSKA and Avangard. Neftekhimik will play first game of the season in Minsk as a guest team against Dynamo on September 2.
With regard to preparation for the season, the plans scheduled by the coach, agreed and approved by our general sponsor PJSC "Nizhnekamskneftekhim", are fully implemented.
The head coach will tell you more about the lineup of the team, but I can say that the process is ongoing and it will go on constantly. Because, during the season, unfortunately, someone gets injured, someone leaves.
V.G. Butsaev:
- Yes, indeed. We have not much time left before the start of the season. At the beggining of the season we will play with, Dynamo Minsk, Sochi and CSKA. We’ll hold our first home game against Dynamo Riga on September 9th.
In terms of preseason preparation, the planned volume of activities is being implemented. We are pleased with the work of all players, satisfied with the attitude of the guys to work. We are understanding what we need to strive for and what we want to get.
If we talk about the lineup of the team, this is a process which does not stop. Because in sport, no matter how trite it may sound, rivalry is always at the forefront, so here each player must work hard to play in the first team, not because of his beautiful eyes.
We invited several players to sign a tryout contract, some of them lived up to our expectations, others did not. Probably, we should also accept those realities that we are not the club which can afford very expensive hockey players.
Now we have three friendly games ahead. The day after tomorrow we will play with the CSK VVS, then two more games in Ufa. This will end our preparatory period for the season.
- Is the team ready in terms of tactics and physics?
- We do not start playing the regular season on August 22, so for now everything is on schedule. A large amount of work has already been done, and we see that the guys are already reaching a new level in physical terms.
And in terms of tactical training, systematic and painstaking work is ongoing. In this case, we proceed from the fact that each opponent uses a different model of the game and we must know the strengths and weaknesses of the opponents.
At the meeting, questions which the fans had sent in advance, were also asked. Here are some of them:
- Andrey Nestrashil without a team now. Is there any chance of seeing him again in Neftekhimik?
- Not much of a chance . We are aimed at other hockey players.
- How do you rate the game of new legionnaires? Recently, Ryan Murphy arrived at the location of the team. Could you say something about his physical condition right now?
- You know, they didn’t have many games. Mitchell and White joined the team at the training camp, and Murphy just a couple of days ago. He only spent the second training with us.
I would not give a mark right now. They аre trying to do their best. We are counting on their skills. We hope that they will add creativity in terms of completing attacks. We need to wait a little bit.
-Will Ozolin and Groshev get their chance to establish themselves this season in the first team?
- Yaroslav Ozolin passed almost all the training camps with us. At the moment, we decided that he should go to the tournament with a youth team in order to get game experience. Of course, he works with us, but we are watching not only him. We will call some guys during the season.
- Are you watching our farm team CSK VVS? Maybe after the game, you can pull someone to the main team?
- We have no players in the farm team. There are only personal contracts of players with CSK VVS. We will cooperate with this team. If someone can’t be in a lineup of the team he will go there.
- Who will be the captain in the new season?
- I am not ready to answer this question. There are candidates, we will look further and think who can really become a leader in the locker room and on the ice.
- There are three friendly games ahead. On what kind of things you will pay special attention ?
- On all things. We had several preseason games. In principle, we are pleased that we got strong teams in sparring. The first games were held in Finland. We watched a large group of young guys who are just joining a big sport. Last season, for the most part, they played for the youth team. Also we viewed new players. In general, we liked something in these games, we learned something useful for ourselves.
We held a tournament in Nur-Sultan with top opponents from our conference - Avtomobilist, Ak Bars, Salavat Yulaev, Barys. In some places we showed a good game, good hockey, but it was from time to time, not for all 60 minutes ...
Probably due to the fact that we had such strong teams, despite the negative result, we saw how the guys cope with such psychological stress, how they will react to such moments in the future. We can say that the team was tempered somewhere through such games: someone revised their self-esteem, someone estimated their capabilities. Good lesson!
