“When I was a kid, I watched the matches of the Russian national team. Any team. I saw how Crosby won the Olympics, it’s amazing. In Russia you are judged on tournaments internationals. But the next Olympics will be in Italy, and that’s Europe. Maybe it will be more dangerous for us there than here in North America. It probably wouldn’t be a problem in the United States “It’s a dangerous situation in the world right now, and we know that. I think it’s more of a player protection issue.
This is bad for young Russian players because they have already missed one edition of the Olympics (in fact, Russia has yet to miss the Winter Olympics – Rating Athletistic) and some world championships. It is not easy. Every hockey player wants to wear a national team jersey.
In football, the World Cup is a big event; a large number of people are watching it. And in hockey, if Canada faces Russia in the final or semi-final, how big will that match be? There are good young people in Russia who are hungry for victories. It’s hard to understand because we play in the NHL, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but we can’t play for the national team. Everything is hard. I would like the guys to play on the international stage.
I hope this is the last year of the ban. It is a sport. We want to play and win international tournaments. Growing up, we never said or did anything bad. We are here simply to play hockey. I hope everyone’s lives get back to normal and everyone gets a chance to play,” Malkin is quoted in The Athletic.
Evgeni Malkin has participated in three Olympic Games (Turin 2006, Vancouver 2010 and Sochi 2014), but has not yet managed to win an Olympic medal. This season, he played 49 NHL regular season games and scored 41 (16+25) points in the “goal+ass” system with a utility indicator of “+3”.
Source: Sport
I’m Emma Smith, a dedicated journalist and avid storyteller. I have been writing for news websites for the past 5 years, reporting on hockey news and delivering in-depth analysis of the sport. In my current role as Author at Athletistic, I write about hockey events from around the world to keep followers up-to-date with what’s happening in the sport.
