Plyushchev slams Dynamo's 'cowardly hockey' under Tambiev

Vladimir Plyushchev, the former Russia head coach, has called Dynamo's play in the current KHL season "cowardly hockey" and said the club's new coach, Leonid Tambiev, is already showing "provincial complexes". Dynamo have 10 points from 10 games and sit sixth in the Western Conference.

"It is very hard for me to watch Dynamo now," Plyushchev said. "When the team of Alexander Maltsev, Valery Vasiliev and other blue-and-white legends plays cowardly hockey, it makes you recoil. In 10 games this season Dynamo have scraped together 10 points and squeeze out two goals a game. It is dull to watch."

Tambiev has complained about the quality of the squad. Plyushchev did not accept that, and he was equally critical of how the club chose its coach.

"From the start, the choice of coach by the Moscow Dynamo management raised big doubts," he said. "I did not understand where the candidacy came from of a specialist who sets up survival hockey and whose ceiling is clubs of the second, if not the third, tier. Tambiev's provincial complexes have already started to show. The coach is not sure of himself and lurches from one extreme to the other."

Plyushchev pointed to the last three days. Dynamo beat Minsk with difficulty, and Tambiev praised his players. The next day they lost to Ufa without a chance, and the criticism of the players followed at once.

"A professional coach has no right to such swings in mood," Plyushchev said. "Players notice them immediately, and it shows in the team's attitude and in their attitude to the coach."

Asked whether he agreed with Tambiev's criticism of the Dynamo squad, Plyushchev said he did not.

"As far as I know, Tambiev had the most direct involvement in putting the squad together," he said. "Players he knew well were brought in from teams of his own level, the second and third tier. And everyone remembers his comments on Gusev, which were, to put it mildly, not complimentary. So this is exactly the plain team the coach wanted, turning down star players who you have to want and know how to work with. So the first questions here are for the coach."

If results stay where they are, this argument may follow Tambiev for as long as the squad he asked for keeps averaging two goals a game.