Ivan Demidov does everything possible to impress his head coach with SKA St. Petersburg, Roman Rotenberg, but without success.
After spending the start of the season at the bottom of the lineup with playing time around 10 minutes per game, Demidov finally got his chance on the first line on Friday.
He seized this chance in great style with an impressive haul of three points.
Even after scoring a goal in a fourth straight game, Demidov couldn’t draw praise from his coach. Rotenberg simply refused to praise his young player during an interview with Russian media outlet Match TV.
In fact, Rotenberg doesn’t want to compliment Demidov because he thinks that if he does, the young striker will “wear the crown”. In summary, Rotenberg thinks that Demidov will lose his head if he receives compliments.
It’s a bit absurd, because thousands of Canadiens fans praise him every day on social networks.
The crazy thing about this is that Rotenberg said Demidov can play better. It’s always possible to play better, but after a three-point performance, you have to give the player a minimum of credit.
It’s normal to see a player become overconfident when he’s told he’s incredible, but in this situation, Rotenberg very rarely has a good word for Demidov.
A little bit of recognition once in a while wouldn’t hurt.
The good news in this story is that Rotenberg still admitted that Demidov works hard and that he is impressed by his level of work. He is happy to see that Demidov listens to him and does everything he asks him to do.
It’s not so bad if Rotenberg doesn’t want to praise Demidov because he at least gave him playing time on the first line on Friday. We must now hope that he will stay there during the next matches.
Demidov was even the most used player on the power play on Friday. He collected an assist with a man advantage.
In burst
– Lane Hutson saw his brother be dominant with the United States.
– The Dodgers are having a crazy winter.
– He has good players on hand to do it.
– An easy match for Arsenal.
