Gatiyatulin: Ak Bars win over Sibir raised many questions

Ak Bars beat Sibir 3-2 in a shootout in the Fonbet KHL Championship, and head coach Anvar Gatiyatulin said afterwards that the performance left the team with "a lot to work on".

Grigory Denisenko scored twice for Ak Bars. Kirill Semenov got the decisive goal in the shootout.

"After the previous game I said a win is a win," Gatiyatulin said. "The performance raised more questions than it provided, and we will look for the answers. We did not undervalue Timur Bilyalov's save at the end, the three-on-one break. We showed character and took two points. Thanks to our fans for their support."

Asked why the team looks less convincing against opponents with problems of their own, after bright games against Metallurg and Salavat Yulaev, he pointed to the emotional pull of those fixtures. "After such emotional games we probably slipped into a routine," he said. Marking several parts of the game out of 10 — pressure, play in the attacking zone, positional attacks, getting back, play in their own zone, playing out from under pressure — he put them "somewhere around four, five, six".

Gatiyatulin said the staff are going through the problems on video and, where possible, in training. He also spoke about combinations. "Many new lads have come in, and many have been given different roles compared with last season. Players have also joined who either had no KHL experience at all or had minimal experience. So the process is under way. We are moving forward little by little."

Asked whether Denisenko now looks one of the leaders and had changed after adapting to the KHL, Gatiyatulin said the forward's intensity was the same last year. "We expected something a little different, but it took time to adapt," he said. "Grisha found a role for himself and had a good season last year. He made up for some things in attack with his commitment and physical pressure. I won't say he had a bad season last year. As for this season, you can see he has already adapted in the team."

If Gatiyatulin's own marks of four to six are accurate, the two points from Sibir may be worth less to him than the result suggests, and the work on video and in training will decide how long the routine lasts.