"We are all required to play for the team"

Things are still difficult for the hockey players of CSKA Moscow in the current KHL season. In the summer, Igor Nikitin returned to the post of head coach of the Red and blue, who had already led the team in 2017-2021, winning three regular championships with it, reaching the playoff finals twice and bringing the club the first Gagarin Cup in its history in 2019. During the four years of his absence, the squad he assembled won two more Gagarin Cups under the leadership of Sergei Fedorov, but in the last year and a half, the club parted with most of the hockey players who brought these trophies and began building a new team.

In the past two seasons, CSKA was eliminated from the playoffs following the results of the first round, and Nikitin, during his absence from the club, achieved success with Lokomotiv Yaroslavl - reaching the final of the Gagarin Cup – 2024 and winning it in 2025. With the return of the triumphant coach and his staff, the Army team has not improved its results yet. At the end of November, they were even outside the playoff zone. Since then, they have managed to slightly improve their results, but still the team is still only in eighth place in the Western Conference — this is the last line to reach the playoffs. In an interview with Izvestia, CSKA striker Denis Guryanov assessed the club's results in recent matches, spoke about the requirements of the coaching staff and explained what prevents the team from scoring more goals.

— What is going on with the team's attack this season, when goals are difficult to come by?

— Yes, we have difficulties with this. In my opinion, due to the fact that the implementation is lame. We create moments, but we don't always realize them.

— Do you see any progress in the CSKA game over the past month?

- of course. We work, we sort out our matches at meetings, we sort out each next opponent — there is progress, which can be seen from the result, from the game, and from the moments we create. I think we're moving in the right direction.

— At the end of November, when CSKA lost 1-4 at home to SKA, Igor Nikitin said at the post-match press conference that you did not have a team. In the past month, can we say that he has no reason to repeat such words?

— I think so, yes. We have a team now. We started playing much better. And we will keep adding more.

— What were the problems of CSKA in the first three months of the season, when the club was out of the playoff zone?

— I really don't know. This is already the past. Let's put this in the past. Thank God that everything is getting better now.

— Is it calmer now that you are more confident in the playoff zone than you were a month ago?

— We are looking more at each specific game. We try to take each game as a new challenge for us and set ourselves up for it in a serious way.

Kuznetsov of his happiness: how are things going for Ovechkin's ex-partner

The two-time world champion scored the first goal for Magnitogorsk and dropped out of the squad again.

— How have the requirements changed for you with the arrival of Igor Nikitin and his staff at CSKA compared to the previous season under the leadership of Ilya Vorobyov?

— It's hard to say what exactly I got. Basically, we are all required to do the same thing — play for the team and use our strengths. But the main thing is to help the team, first of all in defense. If we play well defensively, then there will definitely be chances in attack.