MOSCOW (AP) After a week of turmoil for Olympic hockey
Cheap Youth Travis Frederick Jersey , Russia thinks it is poised to be the big winner next February in South Korea. Its fans have waited more than 25 years for an Olympic
gold medal, and its top league wants to fight the NHL for international markets
so the absence of NHL players in Pyeongchang could be, well, a golden
opportunity. The Olympics are ”the biggest, most significant event in global
sports,” Vyacheslav Bykov, who won Olympic gold as a player in 1988 and 1992 and
later coached Russia’s national team, told The Associated Press on Friday.
”Competing at the Olympics is much more important than the Stanley Cup.” The
Russian hockey system is a tangled web of sports, government and commercial
interests, but all see Olympic gold as a national priority. Since Bykov and the
post-Soviet Unified Team won gold in Albertville 25 years ago, the best Olympic
result for Russia has been a 1-0 loss to the Czechs in the gold medal game in
1998 – the first Olympic tournament with NHL participation. On home ice in Sochi
in 2014, Russia lost 3-1 to Finland in the quarterfinals. The NHL’s announcement
Monday that it won’t shut down so its players can travel to Pyeongchang leaves
Russia in a uniquely strong position. It is home to the Kontinental Hockey
League, widely regarded as the strongest outside North America with talent
including former NHL stars like Pavel Datsyuk
Travis Frederick Cowboys Jersey , Ilya Kovalchuk and Slava Voynov who are playing closer to home. And if some NHL players are allowed to play in the Olympics, Russians
including Alex Ovechkin and his Washington Capitals teammates, Evgeny Kuznetsov
and Dmitry Orlov, as well as Pittsburgh star Evgeni Malkin have all said they
plan to participate. That would make Russia a likely favorite even if Canada and
the U.S. are able to count on a handful of NHL stars, too. ”They’ve got a huge
advantage because they’ve got NHL guys, they’ve got guys that have gone home to
play,” said Corey Hirsch, goaltender for Canada’s silver medal-winning team at
Lillehammer. ”They’re going to have NHL players. But it’s not going to be like
we’re going back to the 1980s. … They’ll have some good players, but they’ll
have some weaknesses, too.” Added Steve Duchene, a Canadian who plays for the
Colorado Avalanche: ”They have some career guys who’ve played in the KHL and put
up huge numbers and are used to the big ice. I think Russia would probably the
favorite just because of who they have playing over there.” Less well-known to
North American fans are Russian players like Vadim Shipachyov, the top scorer at
last year’s world championships, and Evgeny Dadonov
Daniel Ross Cowboys Jersey , who have both been widely reported in Russian media as considering moves from SKA St. Petersburg to the NHL this summer. Whether they
move could be a litmus test for Russia’s Olympic hopes. With players potentially
facing a choice between NHL contracts and what could be the national team’s
first gold medal in a generation, the Russian Hockey Federation is trying to
”bring home” stars from North America and stop emerging talent from leaving the
KHL, chairman Arkady Rotenberg said Wednesday. If Russians want to go
Pyeongchang despite holding valid NHL contracts, Rotenberg vowed to help with
their legal costs. Rotenberg typifies the close links between sports and the
government in Russia. A close friend of Vladimir Putin who became a billionaire
in large part due to government contracts, he chairs the RHF board and sits on
the KHL board. His nephew, Roman Rotenberg, is vice president of SKA St.
Petersburg, the KHL team that signed Datsyuk, Kovalchuk and Voynov using money
from state gas company Gazprom. The KHL relies heavily on payments from Russian
state companies and regional governments. With the Kremlin focused on
controlling government spending, it has gone through some lean years recently –
but KHL teams have a track record of finding money – and salary-cap exemptions –
when a top Russian player wants to come home. ”I think all the fans in Russia
will be happy if our players, Russian players, will come to the KHL and play
here, represent the national team at the Olympics
Womens Jourdan Lewis Cowboys Jersey ,” Bykov said. ”Yes, it’s patriotic, but it’s also each player’s personal decision … It’s not an easy situation for any player.” Taking
a schedule break for the Olympics is a no-brainer for the KHL, which already
crafts its season to accommodate not only the world championships but
national-team tuneups scattered through the year. The KHL has been pushing to
beat the NHL to the potentially lucrative Asian market, with a team in China
since August. If its players become Olympic stars in South Korea while the NHL
sits things out, it could help the Russia-based league cement its presence in
Asia. The KHL has tried to take advantage of NHL missteps in the past,
particularly by attracting star players to come to Russia during the last
lockout, but its attempts to expand outside the former Soviet Union have often
become entangled in financial problems or lack of interest from local fans. For
many in Russia, though, the NHL-KHL intrigue is far less important than the
Olympics. ”It’s the top of the pyramid,” Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko told
state news agency Tass. ”No business interests, no loss of earnings – though you
can discuss those things – should restrict your opportunity to show what you can
do at the Olympics.”.
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