Hockey
In the USA, they cry, but they eat a cactus. Without stars from Russia, the NHL is a cheap fake
And the bosses of the league are well aware of this. Otherwise, the Russians would have been expelled long ago.
Despite the off-scale level of hatred for everything Russian, our hockey players in the NHL continue to tear and destroy rivals.
And calls for the deportation of Russian guys will inevitably turn the best hockey league in the world into real garbage.
Yes, without Russian hockey players in the NHL there will be nothing to look at at all!
Are ours really that cool?
Kirill Kaprizov and Vladimir Tarasenko became the protagonists of the past game day in the NHL. Kirill scored a brace, and Vladimir scored a hat-trick. Moreover, Kaprizov continues to tirelessly beat all conceivable and unimaginable records of his club, the Minnesota Wild. This time he updated the achievement of Marian Gaborik and Wes Walz, becoming the team’s top scorer in one series.
Despite this, Minnesota lost to St. Louis in Game 5 of the series. As part of the Blues, not only Tarasenko shines brightly, but also three of our guys – Pavel Buchnevich, Ivan Barbashev and Alexei Toropchenko. Of the seven goals in yesterday’s match, which ended in a 5-2 victory for St. Louis, five were scored by the Russians.
And this is far from the only case when our compatriots make it to the playoffs. Evgeni Malkin shines in the Pittsburgh Pitts, creating one masterpiece after another. Artemy Panarin is actually alone dragging the New York Rangers, who are provided with rears by Igor Shesterkin and Alexander Georgiev. Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Dmitry Orlov and Ilya Samsonov are fighting for Washington against the powerful Florida with Sergey Bobrovsky at the gate. Alexander Radulov, Vladislav Namestnikov and Denis Guryanov are fighting with dignity for Dallas against Nikita Zadorov’s Calgary.
Yakov Trenin, despite the relegation of Nashville in the confrontation with Colorado, became perhaps the best player on the team, scoring three goals in four meetings. As part of the Avalanche, by the way, Valery Nichushkin lights up, who spends the best season in his career. In Carolina, young Andrey Svechnikov is traditionally good, as well as goalkeeper Pyotr Kochetkov, who suddenly got a chance. In the confrontation between Tampa and Toronto, representatives of Russia also play the most important roles – Nikita Kucherov, Andrey Vasilevsky and Mikhail Sergachev from the side of the Lightning and Ilya Mikheev and Ilya Lyubushkin from the side of the Maple Leafs.
Not bad, isn’t it? Now try to remove Russian hockey players from these clubs and see what happens. The NHL will lose and lose a lot in terms of entertainment and attractiveness of its product. But calls to expel our guys from the league arose on a regular basis.
“Ovechkin is a coward and a liar”
One of the main initiators of Russophobia in the NHL suddenly became the legendary Czech goalkeeper Dominik Hasek. Suddenly, also because he managed to play in the KHL for Spartak and then spoke very flatteringly about our country and our hockey. Apparently, something in his mind has changed. First, in his social networks, he called on the NHL to immediately suspend the contracts of all Russian players, and then he openly ran into Washington forward Alexander Ovechkin.
He is not only a coward, but also a liar. That he is not interested in politics is not true. Everything he says about Russian actions is lies and excuses,” Hasek said in an interview with the Swedish television channel SVT.
“Russia is too toxic”
The official diplomatic representative of Ukraine in Canada, Andriy Bukvich, even sent a letter to the Minister of Sports of Canada, Pascal Saint-Onge, with a request to suspend any form of cooperation with the Russians in the field of sports, to stop issuing visas and work permits.
The message must be very strong. Russia is too toxic and we must make it clear that we will have nothing to do with everything Russian, be it culture, sports or anything else. There must be concrete action. The world must isolate Russia in every possible way. Now is not the time to be neutral and politically correct,” Bukvich later said on Canadian TSN.
The Ministry of Sports of Canada, of course, carefully read the letter, took pity on Bukvich, but did not dare to expel the Russians from the sport. And they even urged us not to show hatred towards our players so violently. And there were constant threats against Russian hockey players, as, for example, the agent of many of our guys across the ocean, Dan Milstein, spoke about. He noted that Russians are often sent letters wishing for death.
“Russian players do not exist for me”
Foreign users of social networks, with their statements, just confirm Milstein’s words about threats against Russian NHL hockey players. Just look at what they write.
– Deport them all! Let them enjoy playing for pennies in the KHL,” said geetsloboy.
“Maybe if Russian players are banned from bringing the Stanley Cup to their country, it will make them think,” dorkwingg wrote.
Sorry, but a boycott is a boycott. I love hockey. However, Russian players no longer exist for me. We need to act! Goehlmann said.
“We need to terminate the contracts of all Russian NHL players and send them home,” DreamerSch concluded.
Articles and statements by Canadian journalists from the largest portal TSN looked even funnier, that Russian hockey players intend to seek political asylum in the United States and Canada. Obviously, they do not know that the vast majority of Russians in the NHL have long had at least a residence permit, and even a passport of the country. Most likely, it was another manipulation in order to put pressure on the clubs.
Business is stronger than politics
A strange decision on the part of the NHL was to stop showing league matches in Russia. At the same time, clubs are trying their best to support Russian hockey players. Washington even issued an official statement confirming that Ovechkin and our other guys will continue to play for the club, despite any pressure from outside.
Where, where, but in the Capitals they understand that they need Russian hockey players. The entire league needs them so that Kaprizov, Tarasenko, Malkin, Panarin and Kucherov continue to make history and entertain the American audience, who will simply be bored without them.
This is understood by club and league bosses who know how to count money. Without Russians, the quality of the product will fall, the best hockey will turn into a cheap fake, and along with the ratings, revenues will collapse. If this were not so, then all the talk about loyalty and trust would be thrown into the trash, our guys would be kicked out with beautiful slogans.
It’s just that business is stronger than politics in this case. Americans cry, but they eat cactus. And that’s great news for NHL fans.
Source: Sportbox
I have been working as a sports journalist for about 6 years now. I currently work as an author at Sportish, which is a sports news website. I mainly cover sports news and I love writing about all aspects of the sport. I also have experience working as a broadcast journalist, so I have some great insights into how sport is reported and presented.