"Luck must be earned, achieved through work"

More than half of the matches have already been played in the current KHL regular season. Metallurg Magnitogorsk is confidently leading the tournament table, which can repeat its success the season before last — in the spring of 2024, Andrei Razin's team won the Gagarin Cup. Striker Dmitry Silantyev, who made his debut at the elite level in that draw, became one of the heroes of the playoffs at that time, and this year he reached the call-up to the Russian national team, for which he made his debut at the recent Channel One Cup in Novosibirsk.

There, our national team won against Belarus (3:1) and Kazakhstan (9:0), in the last of these matches, the 25-year-old hockey player scored his first goal for Russia. In an interview with Izvestia, Silantyev shared his impressions of the debut, wished the national team a speedy admission to the World Cup, and also commented on Magnitogorsk's results in the KHL and assessed the prospects of its star forward Evgeny Kuznetsov.

"Playing for the national team is always prestigious"

— What emotions did you feel from your debut in the national team?

— Emotions are only positive. Moreover, these are my first matches for the national team in general, not just for adults. Yes, I was called up to the youth national team at the age of 20, but I couldn't play there because of an injury. So, you can say, yes, for the Channel One Cup, I had my first full-fledged call to the national team in my life. And, of course, playing for the national team is always prestigious. This is the dream of every little boy who starts playing hockey. I've also dreamed of joining the national team since I was a kid. That's why it was nice to be in it now, to be among the best.

— Are you glad that you managed to score a goal for the first time in the second match for the national team?

— After all, we have a team game, so first of all we need to think about the team result. But, of course, I'm happy for myself that I scored a goal, and for my partner at Metallurg, Roma Kanzerov, who also made his debut in the national team and scored a goal in the very first match against Belarus (3-1) — he's a great guy. But on the whole, it's nice that with every training session, with every game, our actions got better, and the team's mutual understanding grew — that's the main thing.

— Is the level of an opponent like Belarus comparable to what you're going through in the KHL?

— It's hard to compare with the league. After all, club hockey is one thing, but the national team is another. But the Belarusians had a very aggressive, vertical game against us. It's quite viscous. A lot of flips (throwing the puck astride out of its zone. — Editor's note), casts. It was very easy to play with them.

— Do such meetings allow us to adapt to the game on the international stage if we are allowed to participate in major competitions in the near future?

— Matches like the Channel One Cup are different from the KHL in any case. It's still the international games — a different level, a different intensity. Especially when there are as many fans as there were at the national team matches in Novosibirsk. It was very nice that the arena was full. It's always interesting to play in such an atmosphere. But, of course, we would like to enter international tournaments already. We will be patient and work hard to prepare for this moment.

— We followed the December news about the recommendations from the IOC to allow juniors to compete. Is there any hope that at least the junior and youth national hockey teams of Russia will be allowed to participate in the World Championships in the near future?

— I'm not following this closely. But I see news that some decisions are being made. I would like to see the official matches of the Russian national team for all ages. Now, it seems, they have slowly begun to allow Russia to participate in other sports, and with its own flag and anthem. God grant that all this will come back to us now.

"The challenge for us is to try to win the Gagarin Cup again"

Alexander Yelesin, hockey player of the Russian national team and Lokomotiv, talks about his chances of repeating his triumph in the KHL and his captaincy at the Channel One Cup

"Luck must be earned, achieved through work"

— Metallurg is confidently leading in the current KHL regular season. Do you feel that everyone is waiting for you to win the Gagarin Cup again, to repeat the triumph of the season before last?

— Maybe they are waiting. To be honest, we don't look at it. We just try to enjoy hockey and impose our fast game on our opponents. We know how to play, and we just want to prove it in every match, because last season was difficult for us and ended with relegation in the first round. I want to compete for the Gagarin Cup again this season.

— In the spring of 2024, Metallurg won in its first season under Andrey Razin, when few expected it from the team due to the large number of young people, KHL newcomers like you or just experienced hockey players who did not win in the playoffs. Now that everyone has such an experience and you have added stars of the level of Vladimir Tkachev, Sergey Tolchinsky and Evgeny Kuznetsov, has the team's game changed a lot?

— Not that it has changed. We have always tried to work efficiently and play according to the system preferred by Andrey Vladimirovich Razin. This was the case in the championship season, and in the unsuccessful last one, and now, when we were in the lead. It's just that we had some bad luck last season, and our luck ran out. But luck must be earned, achieved through work. I hope we can do it this season.

— What does the adaptation of Evgeny Kuznetsov at Metallurg look like from the inside, who has been in the team for three months now, but does not always get into the squad?

— Kuzya is working, we are already used to him, he is with us. He feels comfortable in the team and in the city. I think everything will be fine with him and us. And in the near future, he will show himself better and better on the ice.