Mikhail Kravets: Avangard showed character and skill in this game”

Thursday, October 26, “Avangard” won at home in the KHL championship match “Salavat Yulaev” 1:0. The meeting was appreciated by the team’s head coach Mikhail Kravets.

According to the coach, the morning workout on Thursday and the fact that, unlike the start of the last home series, the game started at 19:30, and not at 17:00, as was the case with Traktor on October 7, helped me recover after a difficult trip.

Let’s note that the Omsk arena at the Avangard games today was sold out for the second time in a row (before that, at the end of the last home series, in the match with Lokomotiv).

– Of course, we are glad that we won. It was a complex, hard game, at good speeds. Against a strong technical team. Our guys showed skill and character, the most important thing is that all 4 lines played well. And, of course, today our goalkeeper again proved that the game is now at his level – not even 50, but 70-80 percent of success.

Of course, we are glad that after a difficult trip we returned home, this game was like an away game, but at the same time it was different – the whole stadium was for us, in such an atmosphere we traditionally play especially hard, trying to give all our strength to win.

– This time the home series also began a day after the away one. But comparing the two games – this one and the one with Tractor – it is clear that the results are different and the content is completely different. Have you noticed this for yourself, such a positive thing?

– Of course, we noted this. The only difference in the preparation for these two games is that we started playing at 5 o’clock in the afternoon. And today it’s already at 19:30. And I think the morning exercise helped us, one might say, even recover and get back into good shape after the trip.

That time we found ourselves without ice, as it happened. This was the first time for us, and, of course, next time we will come up with something to prepare the players successfully.

The calendar is difficult, there are a lot of matches, buses, travel, I am grateful to the guys for all their resilience in any case. Just great guys.

– Now they asked Abrosimov why Avangard played matches with the same content against Lada and Vityaz, and then played better, obviously differently. He replied that this was still a problem of lack of tuning. How would you assess the problem of attitude when the season is long, there are many matches, and it is impossible to get the maximum mindset for each opponent?

– Of course, there is some truth in this. And this exists. But I would also like to have an equally good attitude towards all opponents. You can’t divide them, thinking: “We’ll rest with these, and then we’ll try our best against the strong ones.” You need to play to your fullest no matter who you are up against. Moreover, now there are no weak rivals. I already said this earlier.

Previously we also wrote about the match “Avangarda” in Kazan October 24.