HEATLEY: I HOPE NHL WILL LET US GO TO SOCHI

Sport press correspondent talked to San Jose Sharks winger and the best scorer of Canadian hockey team Dany Heatley.


The best scorer of Canadian national team in the World championships suffered three losses to Russia in recent four years. Taking into account Heatley’s friendship with Ilya Kovalchuk and his performances for Ak Bars in season-2004/05 the Canadian winger has special relations with Russia.

Press service of the Sharks gave russian correspondent an opportunity to talk to Dany Heatley, who is supposed to be one of Canada’s leaders at the Olympic games in Vancouver.

"I like Russians very much and I have many close friends from this country. One of my best friends is Ilya Kovalchuk, with whom we came to NHL and Atlanta. He is not only the great player, but also a real friend, and I can say the same thing about Vyacheslav Kozlov".

"I had perfect relations with many players in Kazan. You know no matter where I play I always find good Russian players, for example Anton Volchenkov in Ottawa and Evgeniy Nabokov in San Jose".

"Russian men like playing hockey and possess competitive spirit. They never want to lose and work very hard getting pleasure from the game".

"The Olympic games will begin soon and the main target for Canada will be to reach the final match and if Russia does the same thing it will be a really great match".

"Russia beat us in finals of two recent World championships and it’s impossible to forget about it. We want to take revenge on them as it would make us happy".

"Matches against Russia have always been historic events for Canadian team. If we meet in the final in Vancouver it will be a great ice battle".

"The World championship in Quebec in 2008 was special for Canada, since it was our first home world tournament. It was perfect and gave us many positive emotions".

"As for the loss in the final, it’s always painful. In our case it was even more unpleasant because we played at home and took two-goal lead ahead of the third period. Our future was in our own hands, but we let the opponents fight back and beat us".

"We should understand that hockey is popular kind of sport in many countries and there will be many good teams in Vancouver. And no teams are guaranteed a place in the final or easy way to the top".

"I hope that NHL will allow players to participate in the Olympic games in future. It’s very important and exciting when players from all over the world gather together to determine the strongest team".

"Both Stanley Cup and Olympic gold are important, but in different ways. Maybe Stanley Cup is even more significant, because you spend the whole your career in NHL and dream of winning this trophy every year".

"The Olympic games are on the second place, very close to the first one. Players think about them only once in four years unlike Stanley Cup".