The Gagarin Cup winners were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by Lokomotiv Yaroslavl. The results of the hockey season are summed up especially for the Cheka-OGPU and Rucriminal.info by the legend of the army club, two-time Olympic champion Boris Mikhailov.
- I told you, our team has a chance to win another title. But they are very illusory, and so it happened,” Boris Petrovich reacted to our correspondent’s question with bitterness in his voice. – In big sports, hockey is no exception; even if miracles happen, they are very, very rare. Moreover, Yaroslavl is a powerful, confident, skillful opponent.
- Maybe hockey-related moments prevented your teammates from performing more successfully this season? Representatives of some clubs complained about the very tough, overly dense calendar of matches. Could the fatigue factor have placed an excessive burden on the shoulders of the current army men?
- Well, a dozen matches could be “thrown off” from the calendar. They are clearly superfluous, yes. This issue was discussed. And for the most part, team leaders were in favor of such a championship rhythm. The leitmotif was: let's play! So they played. In this vein, I must say, there is no point in the educational and training process at all. And our Soviet-Russian hockey just grew and became famous all over the world thanks to high-quality training.
Now hockey coaches are only thinking about the physical recovery of their players so that they can play every other day. There is no talk of full-fledged training.
The reasons for the unsuccessful performance of the army team, of course, are not only and not so much in the strict schedule of meetings. They are deeper. Objectively, throughout the entire season I saw only a dozen well-executed matches by the army team, too few, you must agree.
- Is everything really so gloomy? Do you have any personnel for the future that can strengthen the squad in the next season?
- The Army Youth Sports School, by the way, is the strongest in Moscow, so there is reason for some optimism. And capable guys for the main team are either on the way or are already showing themselves in the main team. But young people are characterized by instability, changes in mood, and the like.
Let's say, the not devoid of talent, defender Makarov made a good debut last season, then suffered a little in his condition. This happens all the time. Now the guy plays for Red Star. It’s okay, he’ll gain gaming and everyday experience and hopefully they’ll return him to the main team. Sobolev is trying to gain a foothold in the base. We want more, but we have what we have today.
- Against the backdrop of CSKA’s failures, what could you say about other teams? Is there progress for the better, or in this sense is the KHL marking time?
- I think the fans appreciated the interesting play of Nizhny Novgorod Torpedo and Tolyatti Lada. A couple of years ago, almost no one had heard or knew anything about these teams or their achievements. And there are almost no foreign players in the squads, and spectators enjoy going to Volga matches. The same Khabarovsk “Amur” showed off an excellent game at the end of the regular season, rightfully became one of the strongest clubs in the “East”, and fought a desperate battle to reach the quarterfinals of the Gagarin Cup. In the previous draw, the Khabarovsk team’s success was repeated by Admiral.
Look how interesting and sharp Spartak played. This is the case when they say that the “red-whites” will score more than they concede. The near future will show how viable this hockey philosophy is.
- We can’t help but ask. At one time you were invited to commentate on KHL matches. Then Boris Mikhailov’s voice disappeared from the air. Fans were worried: what happened, why did the hockey legend stop working on TV?
- In fact, I played a couple of matches at the microphone. They invited me to continue commenting, but I refused. I felt discomfort and didn’t like it. I don’t know, maybe the situation, the atmosphere was oppressive...
Interviewed by Alexey Matveev
Source: www.rucriminal.info