Roman Rotenberg speaks about the first stage of the Euro Hockey Tour

Roman Rotenberg, the first vice-president of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation, shared his feelings following the first stage of the 2021/2022 Euro Hockey Tour:

- A lot of work has been undertaken over the course of the past week. All of the guys tried as hard as they could, they followed the management group's plan and improved as the competition progressed. Our task was to take a look at national team candidates here, players who aren't receiving a lot of ice time with their respective KHL teams. We wanted to give opportunities to players born in 2002, 2003 and 2004. By the way, Vladimir Grudinin also broke Alexander Ovechkin's record concerning his age when making his senior national team debut. Unlike Matvei Michkov, he didn't score any goals, but he is a defenseman after all.

Of course, we wanted to win all of our games at the Karjala Cup. However, the main task was to look at how these players can perform at this level. We have received a lot of information in these matches, and we're now looking forward to the Channel One Cup and the World Junior Championship. Moreover, the 2022 World Championship will take place at this very arena, the Hartwall Arena in Helsinki, Finland.