Ak Bars coach on win over CSKA and team's progress
The roar of the Kazan crowd wasn't just background noise; it was the soundtrack to a statement victory, a four-game winning streak forged in the crucible of a classic rivalry. Ak Bars didn't just defeat CSKA; they executed with a surgical precision on the power play that had been conspicuously absent in the early season, converting two of three opportunities in a tight 3:2 battle that feels like a turning point.For Head Coach Anwar Gatiyatulin, this wasn't a flash of luck against a 'top' team, but the deliberate manifestation of a summer's labor finally coming to fruition. 'We started to consistently pick up points,' Gatiyatulin noted, his focus not on the standings but on the process.'The task now is to show the hockey we were building over the summer – to dominate. We solved this task, we showed that hockey.' This shift in mentality is crucial; it’s the difference between a team hoping to win and one expecting to, a lesson any football fan of a dominant club like FC Barcelona would recognize—it’s about controlling the game's tempo and narrative, not just reacting to it. The catalyst for this sudden surge, particularly the explosive power play, appears to be the arrival of Konstantin Shafranov.Skeptics might wonder if a single practice session could truly unlock a team's latent potential, but Gatiyatulin framed it as a calculated shock to the system. 'One of the goals in inviting Shafranov was to shake up the team,' he revealed, a tactical move reminiscent of bringing in a veteran playmaker to a stagnant midfield.'We discussed the moments, and as you can see, one training session was enough. ' This isn't magic; it's the impact of a fresh perspective, a new voice that can identify and correct subtle systemic failures, turning 'that bad percentage of power-play realization' from a collective burden into a shared weapon.Gatiyatulin’s dismissal of the notion of 'unconditional leaders' in the league was particularly telling, a strategic insight that separates modern coaches from old-school dogmatists. In today's parity-driven KHL, much like in the hyper-competitive landscape of European football, there are no guaranteed victories, only earned ones.His choice to quote the poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko—'One should not be afraid of difficult tasks, but one should be afraid of cheap luck'—wasn't just a soundbite; it was a philosophical blueprint for his team's approach. They are not chasing grandiose, season-long declarations.Instead, they are embracing the grind, 'moving from match to match,' a disciplined, game-by-game focus that builds the resilience needed for a deep playoff run. Analytically, this victory propels Ak Bars into a more secure fifth place in the Eastern Conference, but its true value is psychological.Beating a perennial contender like CSKA validates the process, builds belief in the locker room, and sends a clear message to the rest of the league. The challenge now, as with any team on a hot streak, is sustainability. Can they maintain this level of execution and intensity when the novelty of Shafranov’s influence wears off? Will the power play remain a consistent threat? The road ahead is long, but for now, in Kazan, the pieces are finally clicking into place, the fans are roaring, and a team that was searching for its identity has found it not in loud proclamations, but in the quiet, confident execution of a well-laid plan.
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