MOSCOW, September 27 Head coach of St. Petersburg SKA Roman Rotenberg said after the match with Novosibirsk “Sibir” in the KHL regular championship, that Russian hockey is covered by many representatives of the “paid press”, who are not interested in game things, but in scandals, including with refereeing.
The meeting between Sibir and SKA took place on Wednesday in Novosibirsk and ended with a score of 3:0 in favor of the guests. At one point in the game, the referees did not count a goal against SKA in the match, ruling that it was scored in violation of the rules, and Sibir also had 12 penalty minutes versus two for the army team. At the post-match press conference, one of the journalists asked the SKA coach if it seemed to him that the referees had become more loyal to the team after his criticism of them at the beginning of the season.
«»There's no need to look for hockey-related things. The referees are doing their job. The team is sitting on the defensive and trying to ruin our hockey, and our guys are playing with their feet. We can sort out the deletions together — they are all clean. And our hockey players played with discipline. The referees are part of hockey, they did their job. Yes, I can tell the truth. It is always needed. We must talk openly. In our press there are intrigues from the Madrid court, a lot of paid press,» the official SKA website quotes Rotenberg as saying.
Continental Hockey League (KHL)September 27, 2023 • start at 15:30Finished
SiberiaRussia0 : 3
SCARossiya
29:31 • Mikhail Vorobyov (Artem Sergeev, Alexander Nikishin)
38:37 • Alex Galchenyuk (Mikhail Vorobyov, Semyon Sinyatkin)
58:38 • Alex Galchenyuk (Arseniy Gritsyuk)
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“»We need journalists who will honestly analyze the game by hockey » , — added the specialist.
Rotenberg also noted that he did not intend to insult Sibir head coach David Nemirovsky when he called him “a coach from the Canadian Beer League” after the teams’ preseason match.
«»Strong hockey players play in the beer league. McDavid plays there in the summer. This is not an insult. Hockey is a game of emotions. We know David well, we have known him for a long time. He played for SKA with number 81. I know everything about him. But when hockey turns into fights and dirt, no one needs it. Neither David, nor me, nor the journalists,” concluded the head coach of SKA.