State Duma deputy Svetlana Zhurova, Turin 2006 Olympic champion in speed skating at a distance of 500 meters, spoke in a comment to socialbites.ca about the situation with the performance of Russian players in the National Hockey League. According to the deputy, the North American League has managed to position itself as an organization engaged in business and foreign policy that protects hockey players from Russia.
“As for the NHL, the problem is not that it has a pro-Russian position. It initially established itself as a commercial league. They say: We want the best hockey players in the world to play in our league. We want these and we signed a contract with them. They say they sold the rights. It probably doesn’t have sponsors who are Russophobic and prevent Russians from participating. The NHL says it’s always been that league and it won’t change to please some politicians. That’s it; they swallowed it! The tennis federation also swallowed it. Yes, the flag was raised there, but in the NHL there is no flag in principle, athletes play for teams. And no one says that this is not a Russian player, everything is clearly written in the profiles of hockey players,” Zhurova emphasized.
Legendary Czech goaltender and now politician Dominik Hasek has repeatedly called on the NHL to ban players from Russia from playing. He recently sent a letter to league commissioner Gary Bettman, stating that he wants the contracts of all local hockey players to be terminated, compensation to them, but not to be allowed to participate in the games due to a special military operation.
Former KHL referee he apologized We appeared before the Avangard coach for using obscene language.