During the World Cup, Russian fans traditionally have an increased interest in Washington’s performance in the Stanley Cup. Indeed, in the event of the departure of the capital club from the playoffs, world hockey star Alexander Ovechkin will be able to replenish the Russian national team.

As you know, Ovi has no habit of neglecting the call to the main team of the country and always plays with full dedication in international tournaments. Such star hockey players who want to help their national team are not enough for many foreign teams at the current World Championship …

With Ovechkin, in one of these calls, a curious incident happened. Ovi was freed from “cases” overseas just before the quarterfinals of the 2013 World Cup in Finland.

But his exit on the ice against the US team was in jeopardy – the bag with the Russian uniform was lost on the way to the tournament.

Team waiting for Ovechkin

The Russian team brought a strong team to Finland for the 2013 World Cup – Ilya Kovalchuk, Alexander Radulov, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Sergey Mozyakin, Semyon Varlamov and others came to Suomi for gold.

The presence of such players made the team from Russia the favorite of the tournament, and from the first match of the group stage, our team began to justify this status. First, Latvia was defeated – 6:0, then Germany (4:1) and the USA (5:3) were confidently beaten.

But the unbeaten run of the Russian national team was suddenly interrupted by … the French team. The French presented the main sensation of the tournament, beating the Russians 2:1. The fact that our team received a defeat from an outsider on May 9 caused additional negative feelings among the Russian fans.

The Russian national team could not quickly recover from such a blow and in the next match lost to Finland – 2:3. But after two defeats, our compatriots still found the strength to get out of the black streak and return to their level. At the finish line of the group stage, the Russians beat the Slovaks – 3:1 and dealt with Austria – 8:4.

However, due to the disastrous segment in the group stage before the start of the playoffs, the fans of the Russian team had disturbing concerns. In addition, in the quarterfinals we were waiting for a strong opponent – the US team. Although the Americans flew away from our hockey players in the group, there was no absolute certainty of victory before the relegation games.

Fans of the Russian national team exhaled when they learned that the star player and captain of Washington, Ovechkin, accepted the challenge of the national team and would fly to help the national team in the quarterfinals.

Photo: © Joel Auerbach / Stringer / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

Ovechkin is out of shape

Ovechkin did not have time to reflect on the loss in the seventh game against the Rangers in the first round of the playoffs, as he immediately went to Finland for the World Cup. The Suomi International Tournament is a great opportunity for Ovi to take out his sports anger due to an early exit from the Stanley Cup. But the trip to the World Cup did not work out from the very beginning.

Ovechkin flew to Finland as an ordinary fan, not a player – without a hockey uniform. The trunk with the equipment was lost during a transfer in London. Ovi arrived a day before the quarterfinals and on the day of arrival he was supposed to conduct an individual training session on the ice. However, due to the lack of a hockey uniform, Alexander had to change his plans a little, and he spent the pre-game training in the gym. Despite the hopeless situation, Ovechkin was full of optimism.

“The sponsoring company of our team has all my sizes, and I don’t think it will be a serious problem to deliver new equipment. We were assured that at nine in the morning everything would be in place. The main thing is that I have skates with me. As for the form, it is enough to wet it, and it will lie on the body, ”Ovechkin said at the pre-game press conference.

Still, it didn’t come to extreme measures – on the day of the game, the uniform was still delivered to the owner. The strange situation around the equipment did not affect Ovechkin’s game form in any way – in the quarterfinals he scored two points, scoring and giving an assist. But the Russian team still lost without a chance to the American team – 3:8

Photo: © Martin Rose / Staff / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

Interestingly, Ovechkin has already experienced difficulties with participation in the World Championships in Canada. In 2008, due to the lack of insurance, he not only could not play in the tournament, but even go to general training with the national team. However, all the bureaucratic problems were solved, and Ovi still put on the jersey of the national team.

And that time everything ended more successfully – the team gave out a legendary final against the Canadians and got gold.