Russian hockey player beaten before meeting with US President. Unpleasant coincidence

Meeting with the President of the United States in the White House is the dream of any NHL hockey player, regardless of political preferences, since only Stanley Cup winners receive an invitation to this event. And for the Tampa Bay players, the audience with the head of America was especially long-awaited. Having won the trophy in 2020 and 2021, they were only able to enter the White House in April 2022. It didn’t work before because of the pandemic.

Russians Nikita Kucherov, Andrey Vasilevsky and Mikhail Sergachev went to the traditional event among the lightning players. Moreover, even a beating did not prevent the latter from coming to a meeting with the President of the United States.

Long awaited visit

On the eve of “Tampa” skating rink walked through the “Florida”, beating the neighbors with a score of 8:4. Russian legionnaires took direct part in the next victory of the team. Nikita Kucherov scored a double, Andrei Vasilevsky failed to cope with four throws, but parried all the rest. For Mikhail Sergachev, the match did not go so well – in the passive, the removal and the duel lost to Samuel Bennett. The Canadian hit the Tampa hockey player in the face several times, forcing him to leave the ice before the end of the game.

However, the broken face did not prevent Mikhail from going to such an important meeting. In the company of teammates, Sergachev arrived at the White House, where Joe Biden finally had the opportunity to shake hands with someone tangible. Note that US presidents traditionally host the winners of the North American professional leagues in their residence – the NHL is no exception.

Photo: © White House / via Globallookpress.com / Global Look Press

The exception to this old tradition is Tampa itself. The three-time Stanley Cup winner meets the president for the first time. The first victory in 2004 was ignored by the country’s leadership due to the lockout. The triumph in the 2019/20 season also did without a visit to the White House. The pandemic prevented the meeting with Donald Trump. The next president has to take the rap for his predecessors.

For Biden, the meeting is also special. First, it honors Stanley Cup winners for the first time. Secondly, he had the opportunity to talk with one of the most Russian teams in the league, in which each of our players is simply irreplaceable. The main thing is that Sergachev, who came to the meeting with a recently broken face, does not frighten the US president.