Siberia’s performance at the start of the season was one of the main disappointments of the first half of September in the KHL. To say that David Nemirovsky’s team looks toothless in attack is to say nothing, but with the arrival of the Russified Canadian to the training bridge, Siberia was supposed to play a new almost Torpedo-esque offensive hockey.
But so far not only is there no offensive hockey, there is none at all. “Siberia” tries with enormous difficulties to build at least some kind of attack, openly suffers when playing with the majority, and the rare goals so far are the result of luck (remember the comeback from the “rebound” in Astana) or of Pure individual skill from Novosibirsk leaders Taylor Beck and Nikolai Prokhorkin.
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Nemirovski is evidently in a difficult situation. In the summer he probably tried to instill the same offensive style in the team, but now he needs to at least make the team see reason. But how is a coach who looks as confused as possible on the bench and doesn’t understand what is happening going to do this? “Siberia” now needs simple and functional victories, based on character, defense and team spirit. And it’s easy to imagine how Martemyanov, Skabelka, Zavarukhin successfully loaded their players with such a setup… But not Nemirovsky, with all due respect. During his stay in Torpedo, the Nizhny Novgorod club played with fervor and joy, could ignore any result on the scoreboard (which caused frequent comebacks), but that team did not have a core, so it ended the season early and inglorious. . steadily falling apart towards the end of the regular season.
Now “Siberia” only needs this core, the players in the locker room need a change of brain and a clear and simple installation, but I have a strong feeling that Nemirovsky and the current “Siberia” composition are generally in different waves of the broadcast hockey and are not compatible with each other at all. And in such conditions, how can the principal reach his wards, and how can the wards play for the principal, if they speak different languages? Unclear.
David Nemirovsky
Photo: hcsibir.ru
There are many questions for Nemirovsky. What about attacking play? What about the majority? What is Siberia playing? Why are there so many eliminations? Where is the responsibility of hockey players for the result? Of course, David is not coping right now, the team is collapsed and buried in defeat, and it is logical to assume a quick change of coach.
But an even greater responsibility for the fact that the team and the coach are completely incompatible with each other lies with the management of Sibir. Those who made the decision to change the direction of the club, without having the resources to do so, neither external (financing for the acquisition of newcomers who know how to play offensive hockey, professional scouting service) nor internal (talent from the club system) . Those who easily parted ways with Martemyanov were called Nemirovsky. Those who have put together a squad for a coach with a certain style who is incapable of playing with that style.
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Who are these “those”? In Siberia there is no general director position, but it is no secret that for many years general director Kirill Fastovsky has been almost solely responsible for selection and recruitment, who in theory should be helped by sports director Sergei Klimovich. “In theory”, because in recent years there have been several rumors about the coherence in the work of the two Novosibirsk bosses.
Be that as it may, it was these people who formed the current Sibir, whose game is painful to watch. Largely due to the summer selection, in which there were few positive points. Yes, for the future of hockey with Nemirovsky they retained the most important “midfielder” Murphy (he, unfortunately, had already been out for a long time due to a serious injury) and Taylor Beck. This is a success, although Beck himself is known for the fact that in the second year in a club he becomes very relaxed and the number of his harmful actions for the team becomes almost equal to the useful ones. Yes, even in the off-season, Nikolai Prokhorkin was hired, who turned out to be unnecessary for the top KHL clubs, who, as a result, is now trying to take to Siberia. Together with Beck himself, who, despite sometimes terrible mistakes, is simply necessary for the Novosibirsk team to create at least some constructiveness on the front.
Nikolai Prokhorkin in “Siberia”
Photo: hcsibir.ru
But is it possible to play offensive hockey with two forwards? Obviously not. With the signing of another foreign player, Andy Andreoff, it seems that Sibir failed, as happened more than once during the Fastovsky era. So far, the Canadian looks like a completely foreign body, forcing Novosibirsk fans to remember names like Bertrand, Yountilla, Elo, Emmerton… But even if Andreoff comes to his senses, with whom, let’s say, will he combine, knit lace? attacks, passing game (we’ll now skip the fact that Andy is a fairly easy vertical player for tag and martial arts, never a tech expert)? Dubakin, Spiridonov, the sad Butuzov, the Klimovich brothers who are absolutely raw for the KHL, Gogolev, the pig in the punch, the newcomer Belousov, who was abandoned by the automobilist? No, in an ideal situation, all the above-mentioned hockey players can, of course, play calmly, but too many wonderful transformations should occur and Nemirovsky still does not look like a magician at all.
And this is not what is required of a coach now. He rallied the locker room around him, made the hockey players angry with themselves, forgot about art and remembered the plow. But, as I already wrote at the beginning, I don’t think Nemirovski is capable of doing this. So what should we do? Change coach? I will not insist now that this option is the only correct one, but it is very possible that very soon there will be no other option left to save Sibir’s season.
But if Nemirovski’s resignation occurs, then those who took him fishing but did not give him a fishing rod will simply have to share the responsibility with the coach. After all, it is very likely that Sibir’s passage of time after the revolutionary “Skabelka era” is a consequence not only of the club’s modest budget and status, but also of the permanence of power within it.
