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Author: Pavel Stryzhevsky (Sport Express Newspaper)
Translated By: Sergei Chveitser

Date: 03/20/2006

Maxim Sushinski: I'm 99% sure that I will go to the NHL.

2006 Russian Super League

Colleagues will confirm that it's extremely hard to have a big interview with Maxim Sushinski because of his sophisticated character. After Dynamo's loss in Togliatti during the 1/8 finals (the champions' early exit was the biggest news of the current playoffs) it seems that so many emotions bottled up in the Dynamo captain's heart that if the Sport-Express correspondent didn't ask for an interview, he would ask himself.

What we battled for is what we got caught on.

Dynamo's elimination from the 1/8 finals, in your opinion, is it a disaster or was it a logical ending?
M. Sushinski: I think it's logical. What we battled for is what we got caught on. If the situation at the club was the way it was at the beginning of the season, this result would have been a failure, but the way things are right now, there's nothing to be surprised about. In fact, it can be considered a success that we didn't lose in three straight. In two out of the last three games, we were unlucky with the shootout.

Dynamo's financial crisis and it's poor result, are these two facts related to each other?
M. Sushinski: Definitely! Before the European Champions Cup, we threw all these problems out of our heads. Before the tournament, management told me as a captain, that we shouldn't expect any money for this cup. We gathered in the dressing room with the guys, sat around for about twenty minutes and everybody expressed everything that had bottled up inside. I asked: forget the money, let's fight for what's precious to every one of us: for Russia, for Dynamo, for our names. All the guys understood and supported me. We focused and played great.

Was there a talk like this before the playoffs?
M. Sushinski: Sure there was. After the first home game that we lost 0:3, we gathered in the dressing room again and found some words. I think everybody saw how our play changed after that game, but the team can't win two tournaments like this without any kind of financial support! I repeat though, the last three games, Dynamo battled hard.

So considering the circumstances, it was impossible to play any better?
M. Sushinski: I think we did everything in our power but we could have easily played a lot worse and we had every reason to. We could have came out, floated for three games and go on vacation, but now, we can look each other in the eyes without any shame. Everybody played hard. You saw yourself how the guys blocked shots and caught pucks with their teeth. I think that nobody can criticize us now.

Dynamo didn't have a good chemistry.

During the 3rd game, Grabovsky blocked the puck in a way that he lost four teeth, half a litre of blood and now has twenty stitches in his mouth but was back on the ice in half an hour. Before this game, you also got a puck in your face when it bounced off the post. How did you feel looking at Grabovsky?
M. Sushinski: During this game, I wasn't feeling well myself because of a concussion and my head was spinning. In the 2nd period, when they brought the bloodied Grabovsky into the dressing room, I thought I would fall unconscious at this sight. When he went back into the game, even though I'm much older than him, I felt uncomfortable because the doctors were telling me that they'll be preparing me for the fifth game and didn't let me play the fourth.

Do you think the team was thinking about him?
M. Sushinski: I think so. The easiest thing to do was to give up and play out the game after the score was 0:1, but we didn't do that. It was all the more disappointing to let a goal in with a minute left in regulation after we battled so hard to take the lead in the game.

If we are to talk about the season as a whole, can you name the main reason for the team's unsuccessful season?
M. Sushinski: In my opinion, we didn't have a good chemistry. We were all feeling broken up. This is probably the echo of Moscow: everything is far in this city and the team had little time left to spend together.

I will specify, do you really believe that Dynamo's main problem was the lack of unity and no the salary payout delays?
M. Sushinski: Yes, that's what I believe although the financial troubles haven't been a pleasant thing either. You come to work and don't get paid for it. We have to think about the money too as everyone has a family to support. I had my own experience when I was in the same situation back when I played for SKA. You come home and the wife is asking "So when are they finally going to pay you?"

Do you think this is why many Dynamo players ran into some serious family problems?
M. Sushinski: At least half the players. We have a young team and far from everyone has some savings.

Is this past season a disappointment?
M. Sushinski: For me personally, yes. It started off just as awful as it ended.

Was the Olympics worth ruining the whole season?
M. Sushinski: It was worth it and despite all the difficulties at the club, I will never regret playing at these games. Even if we didn't win anything there, it was a great pleasure to play for the national team. Our team in Torino was excellent!

If you had an opportunity to go back a year, would you agree to join Dynamo if you knew what awaits you?
M. Sushinski: Since things like this don't happen in real life, I don't want to think about it.

You can't send out lines in the same order!

Is the season in Dynamo a lost one for you?
M. Sushinski: Yeah, it seems I even scored more goals playing for the national team than with Dynamo.

How can this be explained?
M. Sushinski: It could be because I was trusted more with the national team where I was getting more ice time than at the club.

Maybe it's because of Krikunov's approach where he changes lines systematically in a strict order?
M. Sushinski: I don't get this system. You can't send the lines out in order? All the players can't be so similar that it would make sense to send them in an order like this. Everyone just can't play equally well on offense, defense and on special teams! This just doesn't happen in hockey! In Omsk for example, we had two powerplay lines where the first line was always me with Jagr, Zatonski, Prokopiev and a defenseman who was either Tverdovsky or Ryabykin. The second unit was Kovalenko, Bednar and Kalyuzhny with two defensemen. Avangard had more experienced players than us, but nobody held grudges.

Do you think you did your job well as a captain?
M. Sushinski: I don't think so. It's not my thing.

So the team shouldn't have chosen you?
M. Sushinski: I wasn't chosen. Oleg Orekhovsky was picked as captain and I only got the captaincy after he got injured. Maybe I did some things well, but then I struggled with some others.

"You did fine!" - Suddenly turns around Grabovsky who was sitting in front of us.

M. Sushisnki (laughing): At least I did a good job with one guy, Mikhail Yurjevich! But seriously, I can't judge myself.

So what exactly didn't you do well as captain?
M. Sushinski: I'm a soft person and will never yell at anyone. Instead, I always try to support others. The captain has to talk a lot during the game, but I barely speak when on the ice or in the dressing room. Boris Petrovich Mikhailov himself used to teach me that "if you talk a lot, you are not a hockey player". From that moment on, I probably started trying to talk less and prove everything with my play.

Out of the players who were in the lineup until the end, who do you think would have been a better captain than you?
M. Sushinski: I think Shakhraychuk. He has plenty of motivational and organizational abilities.

If they don't pay us, the players association will get involved.

Was there a boiling point in this moneyless soap opera when the team decided: that's it, enough, we are not going on the ice in the next game?
M. Sushinski: Yeah, there was a point like this, but back in Omsk I had a situation when we went on strike and nothing good came out of it. Vailjevich (Krikunov) also told us about how he ran into similar problems in the past. I think that they'll pay us eventually, and if they don't the players association will get involved. Somehow we will get what we deserve.

Did that critical point reach during the regular season?
M. Sushinski: Yeah, it was towards the end of the season after Kharitonov, Kulyash and I returned from the Olympics. The rest of the guys came back from training camps in Arab Emirates and were angry: playoffs are coming up, where is the money? We were once again promised, but still nothing.

Over the course of the season, how many times did the club president Anatoly Kharchuk make these promises?
M. Sushinski: It's hard to count how many there have been and let's not even talk about the promises that I listened to before signing a contract with Dynamo!

In your opinion, did the team stop looking at the current president as a man who can be trusted?
M. Sushinski: I think it has. I think at the end of the season, nobody at all believed him. Last time he said that he will take out some loan and that by March 23rd will give us three paycheques and cover all debts. If this doesn't happen, there will be no trust left for him at all.

We were overloaded all season long.

Who did you enjoy playing the most with at Dynamo?
M. Sushinski: First of all, it's definitely Alexander Kharitonov. We once played together in Omsk with Prokopiev and with the national team at the 2000 World Championships and how! We scored 4 goals in the first game, I had 3 and Prokopiev added another one. That was our last game though, as I got benched after that (laughs sarcastically). I also liked playing with Grabovsky at the end of the season and in the beginning, it was nice playing with Fedorov.

During the season, a lot of players complained about Krikunov's tough practice drills and his harsh comments about them during press conferences. In your opinion, are these complaints justified?
M. Sushinski: As far as practices go, I agree. It was very hard for me too and I believe that not everyone should practice the way we have been doing it. Instead, the coaches told me that I need to work even more. I told them: "In Omsk, I was actually playing and not practicing, but here I practice but don't play" (laughs) and they replied with "In Omsk, you had partners, but here you have to play for two people!" to which I said "But if I have to play for two, where will I get the energy from if I leave everything I've got in practice?" This is what kind of conversation we had at the end of the season after the Olympics...

Do you think the heavy loads in practices prevented the team from playing it's best hockey?
M. Sushinski: I can't say about others, but for me personally, I would say yes. Belousov put the emphasis on the games themselves and not the practice. We often played three lines and sometimes even two. Back then, I was probably getting about four times the ice time than I got this year with Dynamo too. Despite that, I felt a lot better back then. I prepared for the games myself and knew what I need to do.

Failed to reach the goal of being eliminated from the playoffs in three straight...

This year, did you manage to appreciate Moscow as a city that is good to live in?
M. Sushinski: No, I'm indifferent to Moscow and wouldn't want to live here.

Dynamo fans didn't manage to accept you as one of their own or maybe they didn't want to. Do you have any grudge against them?
M. Sushinski: I wouldn't say that, in the middle and the end of the season, they began to treat me fine. I remember that in the beginning of the season I was worried about this, but then I think they warmed up to me or at least that's what it seemed like to me. That said, there were so little of them in the stands that sometime I didn't even know if they are cheering for us or not (laughs).

Did it offend you that there were no fans at all in Togliatti?
M. Sushinski: To be honest, I didn't even know if they go on road trips or not.

They usually go.
M. Sushinski: Even they must've thought that coming here is pointless and there will be no competition. And why should they believe in us when prior to the playoffs, even Krikunov said that our season will end on the 16th of March, the day of game three of our series? It turns out we almost accomplished what the coach wanted from us and finished on the 17th. We failed (laughs).

Since you didn't play in the last two games, I will ask you like this: was the second game of the series that you lost in the shootout your last game with Dynamo?
M. Sushinski: It turns out that yes.

Can something happen in the off-season that would change your mind and make you stay with the team?
M. Sushinski: Yes, something can happen.

What would that be?
M. Sushinski: A change in management.

It's been publicized that the FEDCOM president Alexei Fedorychev is planning to purchase the team...
M. Sushinsky: (interrupting) But from what I heard, Krikunov will remain as the head coach. No offense to Vladimir Vasiljevich, but I will not stay in Dynamo with him at the helm. I can't practice the way he demands anymore. I'm too old for this.

Would you consider staying if Dynamo had a different coach next season?
M. Sushinski: Possibly.

Will you play under his leadership for the national team?
M. Sushinski: Krikunov is a different person at the national team.

What is the difference?
M. Sushinski: At the national team, the practices are totally different and everything is easier and more loyal.

Will you go to the World Championships in Riga?
M. Sushinski: If I'm invited, of course I will go.

I'm 99% sure that I'll go to the NHL.

The off-season is coming up and let's assume you get offers from all twenty of the Superleague clubs. What will be the deciding factor in your decision?
M. Sushinski: I already decided everything and am 99% sure about where I will spend the next season.

Where?
M. Sushinski: I will tell you a bit later. I can't talk about it right now.

Have you played for the team where you are planning to go to in the past?
M. Sushinski: Yes, I've played for them before (smiles). Or maybe I haven't played, I have two options.

The demand for the player of your skill is everywhere. Have you thought about the NHL?
M. Sushinski: (laughing) Again you are asking me the question that I already declined to answer, but fine, this is where I'm going most likely. I'm 99% sure.

Is this decision a result of ambitions to play in the NHL or your unwillingness to once again run into the same problems as this year in Dynamo?
M. Sushinski: Both. Really, after the season in Dynamo, I lost interest in the Superleague for some reason and maybe Dynamo has nothing to do with this. It's just that our league was too strong last season and when a large amount of talent departed before the start of this season, the Superleague really paled. The level of hockey dropped quiet a bit.

Where would you like to end your hockey career?
M. Sushinski: Possibly in St. Petersbrugh although I must say that I have similar filings towards Omsk. This is why there will be two games when it's time to play my farewell game.

To this day, few have had the will to leave the NHL just to play a farewell game in Russia. Will you have enough?
M. Sushinski: With the current situation, I doubt I would have enough will, but what if things turn for the better when my time to retire comes?

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