"Where the team needs me, that's where I'll play"

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl won the Gagarin Cup for the second time in a row. And I did it with two head coaches. Igor Nikitin, who built this team and won a trophy with it last year, unexpectedly left for CSKA Moscow immediately after the triumph, but Canadian Bob Hartley, who replaced him, managed to hold the bar. A significant role in both victories was played by a local pupil, striker Georgy Ivanov, a native of Yaroslavl.

Due to an injury in the fourth match of the last final against Ak Bars Kazan, the 27-year-old hockey player missed the last two meetings (Lokomotiv took the trophy after winning the sixth game, winning the series with a score of 4:2) and went out on the ice on crutches to be awarded gold medals. In an interview with Izvestia, Ivanov told how much he would have to recover, explained what Hartley had changed over the past year, and also admitted that it was a challenge for Yaroslavl to keep the trophy after Nikitin's departure.

— When will you recover from an injury?

— I'll be able to train in a month. So by the time I start preparing for next season, I'll be ready.

— How did the last two matches look from the outside? Did you believe that your loss would not affect you?

— Of course I did. There wasn't even a drop of doubt in our boys.

"It's too early to think about the third Gagarin Cup — I would like to celebrate the second one"

Lokomotiv hockey player Alexey Bereglazov — about new challenges, immediate goals and Bob Hartley's work

— What is the difference between the current and last year's championships, besides the fact that the head coach has changed?

— The backbone of the team, the whole team, has completely remained. None of the players have changed much. We understood that we had to stick together, and then we would be able to do anything.

— What did Bob Hartley bring new compared to Igor Nikitin?

— I think that this season there is a more open game in our performance. They understood that they had to use their strengths, which they had trained.

— After Nikitin's sudden departure to CSKA, was it important for the team to prove that it can now win without him?

— Of course, it was a challenge for us. I think everything happened the way it was supposed to happen. How much he has given us, how much he and his coaching staff have invested in us, is an invaluable experience that we must cherish and use to become stronger and better.

— What are the chances of winning the Gagarin Cup again next season? Has no one won it three times in a row yet?

— We are not thinking about it yet. The main thing now is to celebrate the victory well with your family and friends. Then we'll think about the future.

— At ASHI, the functions in the team have been very different in the last five years. In 2021, you played with Andrey Skabelka in the fourth restraining link with Artem Ilyenko and Mikhail Belyaev, last season with Igor Nikitin you won the Gagarin Cup in the first link with Alexander Radulov and Egor Surin, during this playoffs Bob Hartley moved you and Surin to Maxim Berezkin. Which combination do you prefer to play?

— Where the team needs me, that's where I'll play. (He smiles.)

— Does AS have a valid contract with Lokomotiv, but after it expires, is it possible to try to go to the NHL?

— I don't think about it. I have two more years of contract with Lokomotiv. And I only think about my team.

— Dimil Isaev became the MVP of the playoffs, received the prize for the most valuable player. Some thought that he was cool primarily in Nikitin's tough defensive system. Were you surprised at how he performed in more open hockey under Hartley this spring?

— We never doubted Danka. They knew all his abilities. And so he showed them. (He smiles).

— Probably the most striking event of this playoff is the rescue of Lokomotiv in the semifinal series with Avangard. What were your emotions in the last minute of the sixth match, when you lost 0-2 33 seconds before the end of regular time, but scored two goals and sent the game into overtime?

— The realization that we're back and we have to pick up this episode. That everything depends on us.