The new season of the Continental Hockey League, judging by the control matches, will be hot.
And the point is not only in interesting tactical schemes and bright newcomers, who, by the way, were very difficult to lure to Russia last summer, but also in fights.
Could it be otherwise if Andrey Nazarov returned to the league.
Headed by the mentor of Sochi, over the past month, he managed to arrange a five-on-five battle on the ice with Avangard twice.
The head coach himself, as a player, liked to wave his fists when the opportunity presented itself.
He became one of the first Russian tough guys in the NHL, where he spent 12 seasons.
And the most memorable was the match between Edmonton and San Jose in 1997, for which the Russian received a 39-minute penalty and a 13-match suspension for a fight.
Then it went not only to the rivals, but also to the judges who were trying to calm the athlete down.
Podolsky “Vityaz” Nazarov, which the specialist headed from 2010 to 2012, was just as evil.
Hockey players from the Moscow Region team could have a brawl at any time of the meeting, which kept the opponents in good shape.
And the most striking was the massacre in Omsk, which hockey fans still remember.
In the team, Andrey Viktorovich tried to keep three or four tough guys and complained that in Russia it was not as interesting as in Canada.
“Roughly speaking, no one in our league wants to fight them.
With rare exceptions, ”Nazarov explained to the fans.
Despite this, the coach did not deviate from his ideas in Sochi, which he headed at the end of September last year after a three-year pause.
The very first match with Avangard, to which Nazarov has special feelings, ended in a fight.
Already three seconds after the starting throw-in, six hockey players dropped the gloves at once.
“The task for today's match was to unite.
Nothing unites better than a collective booze or a fight.
But we can't drink.
Our rules are such that only attackers fight.
Defenders are worth their weight in gold, for the fact that they did not fight, we will not expel them, ”said the coach after the meeting.
In general, during the championship, the team attracted more with its game, and not with fisticuffs.
But in the off-season, Nazarov seems to have decided to make his team a little more aggressive.
Hockey players are now ready to sort things out even in training.
So in one of the classes, Donat Stalnov and Nikita Ushnev clashed, fighting for a place in the lineup.
Moreover, the video was posted by the mentor himself.
As it turned out, those were flowers compared to the Sochi Hockey Open pre-season tournament.
Even before it began, Nazarov promised to add fire to the competition, and his team did it by arranging hand-to-hand combat in the match with Avangard.
Literally a couple of seconds after the start of the meeting, a five-on-five fight began.
Southerners scored together 149 penalty minutes.
The leaders of Omsk, of course, were unlikely to be pleased with what they saw.
However, later they joked that such a shake-up allowed the team to rally and play an order of magnitude better in the next matches.
“It so happened that I have been fighting since I was 17, they are constantly discussing me.
It's not flattering, it's just part of the job of helping young hockey players understand that this is a serious sport.
The point is that we all unite after this fight, everyone is trying to show their best hockey, no one wants to play badly, ”Nazarov explained to reporters.
At the same time, the specialist added that he was ready to conduct the next “team building” for Avangard only for 100 thousand rubles.
Everyone then laughed, but in St. Petersburg at the Nikolai Puchkov tournament, a five-on-five massacre again took place with the participation of southerners and Omsk.
Moreover, this time the fans were already waiting for the show, because after the announcement of the composition of the first five of Sochi, the corresponding conclusions suggested themselves.
Good or bad is debatable.
Many experts do not support Nazarov's methods.
The specialist himself does not see anything wrong with such actions.
In his opinion, it is better for hockey players to let off steam immediately than to hit the arm with a stick and inflict serious injury during the match.
At the same time, real tough guys are not required for KHL teams.
“This is a highly specialized fighter.
If there are only two of them in the league, who will you fight?
You need to have a guy in the roster who can fight, but at the same time plays well in defense, is useful in the minority, catches pucks on himself ... This is the kind of combat hockey player every team needs.
And not even in one.
They will be useful, ”the specialist explained in an interview with Match TV.
From a media point of view, new tough guys are needed today more than ever by the KHL: you need to figure out how to lure the public.
"Sochi" with Nazarov today can become the very trump card in the sleeve of the leadership of the league.
In just a couple of off-season matches, Nazarov's "combat players" have already fueled interest in the confrontations with Avangard, which will take place during the regular season.
Although, it would seem, the fans are waiting for the meeting of one of the leaders of the KHL with the middle peasants, and their outcome is obvious.
But if you can’t beat your opponent in hockey, then in fisticuffs the advantage is still on the side of the southerners.