"It's hard for teams playing in the old style to succeed"

After a pause for the Channel One Cup, the KHL regular season resumed, in which Traktor Chelyabinsk will play its first match on December 19 under the leadership of new head coach Evgeny Koreshkov. The famous striker of Metallurg Magnitogorsk and the Kazakhstan national team of the 1990s and early 2000s was previously successful as an assistant coach - in 2011, he won the World Youth Championship with the Russian national team on Valery Bragin's staff, and in 2018-2022, he assisted Igor Nikitin and then Sergei Fedorov at CSKA Moscow, winning twice. with them, the Gagarin Cup (2019, 2022) and reaching the finals once.

In 2022-2025, Koreshkov helped Roman Rotenberg at St. Petersburg SKA, with whom he also works in the Russian national team, in particular, in Novosibirsk, where our team won against Belarus (3:1) and Kazakhstan (9:0). After this competition and shortly before being appointed head of Traktor, the coach gave an interview to Izvestia.

"I would like to see more international matches"

— How would you rate the Channel One Cup that took place for the Russian national team?

— It's always nice to win. Moreover, our team composition has changed somewhat, and it was important to see how the new guys are ready for such matches. In addition, we have more confident victories now than in the previous two seasons, when we had a very difficult time with the national team of Belarus — we either lost them or hardly won them. And this time in Novosibirsk, it was clear that our game was becoming more stable. Although there still aren't enough such international matches yet, I would like to see more of them. But I'm sure we have everything ahead of us.

— You have been working for the Russian national team for three and a half years. Is it difficult to find motivation when a team is suspended from big tournaments at the level of the World Cup and the Olympic Games?

— There is always motivation. Of course, it's a shame that we can't play in major tournaments right now, and I hope that the situation will change soon. But in any case, we need to participate in the matches and competitions that we have now. The games with Belarus and Kazakhstan are necessary because these are different emotions, a different background, a different rhythm of the games. They allow you to keep the right tone, which is necessary for both hockey players and us, the coaching staff.

— When you came to Traktor in November, did you discuss the possibility of being appointed head coach with the management?

— I learned about all these conversations the same way you did, from the press. But in any case, he was ready to help the team in any capacity — both as a head coach with an appropriate offer from the management of Traktor, and as an assistant. I want to do everything so that the club fights for the highest places, as it did last season.

— In what condition did you see the team when you came to Traktor?

— It's hard to talk about the state of the team yet, because I've been working in it for quite a while. We need a longer period of time to specifically figure out what is happening inside, what was missed earlier and what needs to be caught up. It takes a little time to decide which direction to work in next.

Traktor sets itself big goals and can support these ambitions with results."

— You have not worked as a head coach since 2017, when you headed Astana Barys. Do you feel ready for this role now?

— Perhaps such a moment has come. After all, I have already accumulated a lot of experience, including during my time as an assistant at such big clubs as CSKA and SKA, as well as in the Russian national team. Four seasons at CSKA and three seasons at SKA have provided a lot of new knowledge that can be applied in independent work. Especially in such a serious club as Traktor, which sets itself big goals and can back up these ambitions with results — it was no coincidence that the team reached the Gagarin Cup final last season.

— You hardly ever gave big interviews based on your work at CSKA and SKA. Can you explain the secret of the success of the Moscow Army, who dominated the KHL for several years when you worked there as an assistant, first for Nikitin, then for Fedorov?

— Excellent work of the coaching staff, tremendous work of the whole club in selecting players, and a well-chosen playing system. The latter is especially important because modern hockey has become very systemic. It's hard for teams that don't play according to the system and stick to the old style of play to achieve anything.

— In the summer of 2021, Igor Nikitin unexpectedly resigned, who was not forgiven for losing the Gagarin Cup final to Avangard. Why did the team under Fedorov take two trophies even after that, including one with you?

— The style of play hasn't changed much, and almost all the players are the same. The backbone of the team was preserved, and everyone kept the bar that had been set earlier.

— Were you inside the team when, in Fedorov's first season, she won the playoff final against Metallurg, losing in the series 1:3. Why was she so able to pull out seemingly hopeless confrontations, constantly winning long, exhausting series of seven matches?

— CSKA is such a team that it has similar stories. This is such a spiritual team that, due to teamwork, due to the tseesk spirit, it pulls out such series. I think this has been characteristic of CSKA since the 1960s and 1970s. And all this is passed down from generation to generation. The guys realize their responsibility when they come out in the form of CSKA, and they give themselves completely on the ice to the end, regardless of the score of the match or the score of the series.

"It happens that a player and a coach talk in raised tones"

— What happened to Anthony Deangelo last season during the SKA match against Lokomotiv?

—I don't know. Was there something there (smiles)?

— On the TV broadcast, it was clear that you and he were having a heated conversation on the bench. A few days later, Deangelo left SKA.

—That's strange. I don't know why he left then.

— After all, that episode caused a great resonance. Can you tell me what you and Tony were talking about so loudly?

— Well, this is a common thing. It happens that a coach and a player talk in raised tones. As in all clubs, this has happened in SKA.

— In early January, it will be 15 years since the victory of our national team at the World Youth Championship in Buffalo. As Valery Bragin's assistant at the time at the head of this team, can you explain what its strength was?

— This is again a consequence of the spirit, as I said in the case of CSKA. The Russian spirit, the spirit of our hockey. Then we managed to find excellent players for each other, who had incredible mutual understanding. Valery Nikolaevich Bragin, as the head coach, motivated them all very much and ensured that they showed their best qualities and did not miss chances at crucial moments. In fact, it turned out to be a very cool team back then — it's still nice to remember.