Mother Russia demands full focus

Now it's clear that the Russian players are not allowed to speak much to media, and especially to English media. After the game vs Czech even Russian journalists complained that the players didn't want to speak to them referring to some "team meeting". So don't be angry at Ovi, he is just doing what the coaching stuff tells him to do.

DanWetzel, Yahoo! Sports, Feb. 21, 2010:

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Alexander Ovechkin has taken the NHL by storm. Not simply with his MVP play but also with his affable, outgoing personality. He’s the smiling Russian, a jokester, a prankster, an open book for his fans.

But on Sunday, Ovechkin came storming through another Olympic mixed-zone media opportunity, plowing through reporters like he did Jaromir Jagr on a vicious center-ice hit that propelled Russia to a 4-2 victory over the Czech Republic.

He stopped for just over a minute to answer three questions, in Russian only, and then left his home country’s media shouting for more. He hasn’t answered a postgame question in English yet at the Winter Games. His few English off-day answers have been dry and purposefully vague.

If you want to know how serious the Russian Federation is taking this hockey tournament, go ahead and meet the Russian Bear, a guy whose personality has spun 180 degrees from one week ago when he was merely the best player in the NHL.

This is the Washington Capitals star who willingly shares how he met his girlfriend online, how he considers pregame, uh, intimacy, a key to preparation and how he’s addicted to driving fast. He’s almost always in full, toothy grin. He’ll pretty much say anything, one of the NHL’s most outrageous and refreshing personalities.

At 24, he may be the most accessible and down-to-earth superstar in sports.

Whatever Ovechkin and his fellow NHL stars are in their professional sweaters has been forgotten. They’ve taken on the mentality of their home nation’s team – serious, direct and not to be bothered.


So here are the Russians stars, smiles gone, gruff mutters in their place. One after the other stopped just briefly to speak to the media, saying there was a pressing “team meeting” waiting to begin.

The Pittsburgh Penguins’ Evgeni Malkin has never been as colorful or as comfortable as Ovechkin but he’s slowly grown into his relationship with the NHL media. He certainly speaks and understands English.

Just not here. Ask him a question in Russian, you might get a brief answer. Anything else and he walks by with a 1,000-yard stare.

The Russian Army is back – only this time full of familiar, usually loveable faces.

---

TWEET:

 TWEET THIS: http://tinyurl.com/ovetjkin