WORLD CUP OF HOCKEY

September 15, 2016

Oleg Znarok

Q. For the coach, can you tell us who your starting goaltender will be for the first game of the tournament, and is your plan to stay with one goaltender or to have some sort of rotation?

OLEG ZNAROK: We will start with Sergei Bobrovsky and then we'll see how it goes.

Q. Coach, what are the challenges you had coming over here preparing for this tournament, coaching against NHL players, NHL rules, NHL ranks, those sort of things? Has that been difficult or has it been easy for you?

OLEG ZNAROK: I've been playing with my NHL players for a long time. I've been working with them, and I think there's a chemistry on the team, and I will be able to have the team ready and they will be good. We understand that this tournament has the best NHL players, and we want to show just the best game we can, the best games we can, and to present the best beautiful team, to have it all done very well on the level, on the NHL level.

Q. How do you feel after the game yesterday? Are you sure about your team and your players, and what do you think about the coming game with Sweden?

OLEG ZNAROK: There is still a lot of things that they could improve, and they're working on it, and there's some moments and installments that we should concentrate on, but we have time for practice, and we are working on it.

Q. The question might be a little bit out dated but I didn't have the chance to ask it before. What are exactly the reasons why Alexander Radulov was not a part of the team, because the reasons to this day seem a bit murky.

OLEG ZNAROK: Actually he's got a lot of injuries at the beginning of this -- actually in May, so we had to give the list of our team players already at the end of May, of this month, and he just got injuries and he wasn't ready at that time, and that is why we didn't have him.

Q. The fact that he left during the training camp of the World Championships, to which extent did it bother the Russian team that he left at the beginning of the World Championships?

OLEG ZNAROK: What do you mean by actually he didn't participate during the World Championships?

Q. No, it's just that at some point he left for a few days in New York at the beginning for the medicals of the prior -- yeah.

OLEG ZNAROK: Yeah, the same thing, just he's got injuries and he just went to New York to have the medical exam, and the answer is still the same. He's got injuries, and we were not able to -- he was injured.

Q. After the game yesterday, during the first period it seemed that there was some chemistry on the team.

OLEG ZNAROK: It was actually three days that they were on the plane and they had jet lag, and similar to maybe some psychological issues, as well, so just putting the team together and again having the chemistry on the team and making sure that they are a team but not individuals. A lot of factors, even as simple as jet lag.

Q. You said that you already know who will be the main goalie, but do you know who are those two players who won't be a part of the team?

OLEG ZNAROK: We still have time, and I'll keep you posted. And again, we do have three days to decide that.

Q. It was shown that during the face-off, it was difficult during the face-off to get the puck to the team.

OLEG ZNAROK: Of course it is hard to prepare the team three days before the tournament starts to work on some important issues like that, but again, we have time, and hopefully we will concentrate on that and will improve our team and our game.

Q. Would you put this World Cup event on the same level as the Olympic Games?

OLEG ZNAROK: I have no comments on that.

Q. Yesterday Nikita Zaitsev, he played only 22 minutes. Is there a reason for that? Wasn't he trying actually to perform in front of the other coaches in the NHL so he could be recruited?

OLEG ZNAROK: It just came naturally, and we didn't have any intentions.