Avangard’s head coach Guy Boucher has clarified his earlier remarks about the team’s lack of roster depth, following their loss to Lokomotiv in the Gagarin Cup semifinals.
“When I spoke about depth, it’s important to define what kind of depth we’re referring to. Lokomotiv have quality players throughout their entire lineup, and quality matters for us as well. If you compare the two teams, theirs has been built over five years, while ours is only a year and a half in the making. Is that a fair comparison? Miracles don’t happen in sports. You need time to build a cohesive, well‑coordinated team. We’ve been fortunate to have great leaders, but even in the NHL, there are teams that have been building for a long time yet still can’t win. We are getting closer to Lokomotiv’s level, but we haven’t reached it yet. Time is needed. The playoff loss last year and this year are completely different for me.
I’m pleased that we weren’t completely exhausted at the end of the series. Lokomotiv had to work hard to get back into the game. For me, that’s a sign of our team’s growth,” Boucher said, as reported by Lev Lukin.
