BYKOV: ATTACK - BEST FORM OF DEFENCE

Seven-match winning series of Salavat Yulaev became the main news of the previous week of KHL championship and the team head coach Vyacheslav Bykov talked to Sport Express.

The club’s head coach Vyacheslav Bykov and Sport Express correspondent Igor Larin agreed that this interview would concern only Salavat Yulaev and KHL, but also spoke about the national team’s matters ahead of the coming Euro Hockey Tour tournament Karjala Cup.

"I cannot say that beginning of the championship was very easy for us", said Bykov. "Players got used to the new system and maybe coaches underwent adaptation process too".

"As the result we had several unstable games at the start of the season, but I am glad that process of adaptation was not long".

"We scored 86 goals in 22 matches leaving far behind CSKA with their 73 goals and it goes beyond doubt that this statistics makes me very happy. You know that we always tried to develop traditions of Soviet attacking hockey. Attack is often the best way of defence and in this respect our fans should be satisfied with our hockey".

"Salavat Yulaev crushed Atlant and Severstal to provoke dismissal of their head coaches. Frankly speaking I regret that our victories affected these teams this way. I have no right to comment actions of their managers, but these dismissals in KHL look artificial".

"I am sure that it’s impossible to assess the specialist’s work by the short period of the championship".

"Salavat Yulaev treated the KHL match schedule normally. To my mind level of rivalry in our Eastern Conference is higher than in Western Conference, because Metallurg, Avangard and Ak Bars are very strong opponents".

"I don’t know why but mass media, hockey experts and fans pay more interest to Slavat Yulaev, however it’s not right at all! Just look at fantastic work undertaken by Dynamo in summer or star-roster of SKA".

"Maybe the break in the championship, connected with the Euro Tour competition in Finland, is not useful for me as the coach of Ufa club. On the other hand we played 22 matches, players worked very effectively and deserved a short break".

"I want to underline that my work in the club won’t stop after our move to the national team’s matters, as our assistants Sergey Gersonsky and Vener Safin will fulfill all our plans while we are absent".

"Like the whole team goalkeeper Alexandr Eremenko entered the season uneasily. Unfortunately he picked an injury and we had to replace him by Georgiy Gelashvili".

"I think that it’s great that he is eager to win a place in Russian national team’s roster for the Olympics. Big number of ambitious players in our squad will make rivalry among our players fiercer".