"We still have a lot of time to fix everything"

One of the main sensations with a minus sign in the current KHL season was the performance of Novosibirsk Siberia. Having played 28 games out of 68 in the regular season, she is in last place in the Eastern Conference and has already changed head coach twice. In early October, Vadim Epanchintsev was fired after 10 games in the season. He was replaced by Vyacheslav Butsaev, who won three of his first four meetings. But then there was a sharp decline and 11 defeats in a row.

There were rumors about his conflicts with players and assistants around the new head coach. They were partially confirmed by striker Nikita Soshnikov, who left the team in early November. He stated that Butsaev talked to him in such an arrogant tone, which he had never encountered in his career. And then the insiders that appeared on Telegram channels became a meme, which allegedly prohibited hockey players from drinking water during training and putting icons in locker rooms at their lockers. After the away defeat from Dinamo Minsk (0:7), Butsaev broke down at a press conference, calling the journalists schismatics who were causing trouble.

After that, he was fired, replaced by Yaroslav Luzenkov, who had previously worked successfully in youth hockey, but had never coached a KHL team. After two more losses, Sibir finally broke the 13-match series, beating Dynamo Moscow in a shootout (4:3). After this game, Sibir forward Kirill Rasskazov commented on the team's crisis, assessed the chances of returning to the playoff race and expressed his version of the reasons for Butsaev's failure, with whom he previously worked at Vityaz near Moscow.

— How were we able to break the series of defeats following the results of the trip to Dynamo?

— Through dedication and teamwork. No matter what, we played our game, which we agreed on before the match. Of course, it was unpleasant to concede a goal three seconds before the end of regular time and miss the victory. But we had no other way but to win. That's why it's great that we were able to win after a shootout.

— What has changed in tactics and the training process in the week and a half that has passed since the change of head coach?

— The details, the formation, the pressure on someone else's goal have changed a little. It's very important to keep winning. We owe the fans a lot, so we will go from game to game and try to get wins.

— Do you believe that Sibir can still get into the playoffs?

— There are 40 games in the regular season ahead. And being six points behind the playoff zone is something that can be won back. Anything else can happen.

— Do you feel that the team's performance has improved in recent matches? Will it help you get a winning streak and get closer to the competition?

— We have a very good team in every sense. We have had and still have a very difficult path that we will definitely overcome.

— Is there an explanation for why Siberia had this long series of defeats?

— I don't even want to go into details. I want to step forward and start another series. What happened is already history. Unfortunately, it's a bad one. I hope that there will be a good story next.

— How reliable is the information that appeared in the media about the difficult relationship between former head coach Vyacheslav Butsaev and the players? For example, the rumors that he forbade drinking water during training and demanded that the icons be removed from the locker rooms?

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— Every coach sees everything in his own way. I can't say anything about it. Unfortunately, it didn't work out with Vyacheslav Gennadyevich. Our season has generally been very difficult — there have already been two coaching changes. We've calmed down a bit now, and we feel better about each other within the team. Everyone got into the situation and are trying to fix the situation.

— You have already played under Butsaev in the 2022/2023 season in Balashikha for Vityaz. Then it turned out well — the sixth place in the Western Conference and a confident entry into the playoffs, where in the first round the team fought well with Lokomotiv. Why did everything turn out to be much worse in Siberia?

— I don't know. Perhaps the difference is that back then he had been at Vityaz since the beginning of the season and completely led the team. And I joined Sibir during the championship. There is a very subtle point here.

— How true are the rumors that Butsaev is a very difficult person to communicate with? That even during that successful season at Vityaz, he had difficult relationships with a number of players, and all conflicts were extinguished thanks to the communication skills of his assistant Alexander Zavyalov and general manager Igor Varitsky? And in Siberia, without such people, everything completely fell apart.

— I repeat: There is a difficult situation here. And I don't want to dig into it again. Vyacheslav Gennadyevich didn't have much time at Sibir, as he hadn't led the team since the beginning of the season. We have what we have. We thank him for his work, but we are moving on with another coach. This often happens in coaching. And not only in the coaching room: the team does not play — player exchanges, permutations, and so on begin. This is a sport — no one likes to lose.

— What were the problems at the beginning of the season, back under Vadim Epanchintsev, when the results were not so catastrophic, but it also did not save him from resigning as head coach?

"Can we not?" I don't want to think about it in principle. In the sense that I want to keep going with positive thoughts.

— What should we add to Siberia in order to get closer to the playoff zone?

— Victories like over Dynamo add confidence. We just needed this psychological boost — now we need to grab onto it. I repeat, we can play well when we all do everything the same together. We just have to go forward, to win. For the sake of our fans, who support us very well. Even in the last long—distance away matches, they can be clearly heard in the rather noisy palaces in Minsk and Moscow. Many thanks to the fans for this. And we still have a lot of time to fix everything.