Ovechkin says he'll be playing in 2018 regardless of the NHL's stance, threatens to retire if someone tries telling him he can't:
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“I’ll go play in the Olympic Games for my country. If somebody says to me, ‘You can’t play,’ see ya,” he said.
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If the NHL doesn’t go to South Korea, will Ovechkin still go to play for Russia?
“My decision is the same. I don’t know what’s going to happen right now,” he said on Thursday. “I’ve said I’m going to play.”
Is your intention to go to South Korea [for the Olympics] no matter what the NHL’s decision is, or is it a matter of seeing how it plays out?
“I will go there.”
Whether the NHL is there or not?
“Yeah. Maybe I won’t be in the NHL. Maybe I’ll be retired then. We’ll see,” he said, smiling widely.
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http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ovechki...192419182.html
Good on him for having some balls. Hopefully some Canadian and American players do the same.
Criticizes the World Cup too:
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Ovechkin said the World Cup of Hockey is “good for the game, but not good for” NHL players.
“There are 82 games plus playoffs, and then the World Cup. We’re not going to have any time to relax. Or recover our bodies, if we’re injured. But it’s great for fans. Great for hockey,” he said.
He also said that the tournament’s format can’t be compared to that of the Olympics, with Team Europe – a collection of “orphaned” NHL players from European nations – and the under-23 Team North America included rather than two specific nations, like Slovakia and Switzerland, for example.
“That’s why you can’t compare it to the Olympic Games. You can’t compare those two tournaments. Basically it’s three North American teams, one Team Europe and then Russian, Czech, Sweden and Finland,” he said.
“Yes, the best players are here. But it’s not the Olympics.”
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