OVECHKIN: I AM ACCUMULATING GOALS FOR VANCOUVER

Tomorrow at 8 a.m. MSK the Russian national ice hockey team is to play its opening match against the Latvian team at the Olympics-2010.


It is pointless to remind once more how important is Alexandr Ovechkin to the ice hockey world. People expect a lot from the NHL MVP in the seasons 2007/08 and 2008/09. And not people in Russia expect Ovechkin to make a show but also citizens of Canada where Alex is an idol.

"If they broadcasted it on the TV when I helped Ovi get in the car my weight in the company where I am working will increase immensely!" exclaimed a young driver who brought Ovechkin and his Washington company from the airport to the training.

Having come to the Olympics Alexandr does not try to play somebody else. He is the one we know him – straightforward, funny, striving to render most of the questions as jokes.

Only one question made Ovechkin get embarrassed a bit. And this question had a kind of prehistory.

One of the journalists seeing a special microphone prepared for Alex compared the player with the US President. And the spokesmen reacted immediately: "For Canada he is more important!"

"I am not a president," commented the forward. "I see no reason to meet me this way."

"We had a good flight with my teammates. And at once after the airport we arrived at the stadium for a training session."

"I had enough time to feel myself at the Olympics – on my way from the airport. There are so many supporters, Canadian flags, people on the streets who recognize you. Because it is Canada and here everybody goes nuts about ice hockey."

"I prepared a kind of a surprise for our supporters but that is not red blades on the skates as my partner in Washington Tomas Fleischmann said in his interview. I am not going to reveal it now."

"In Turin I brought 19 hockey sticks and to Vancouver I took 42… do not be shocked, I am joking – only 24."

"For us, hockey players, the weather here in Vancouver is all right but for the skiers it must be much worse."

"I am not surprised that it is so warm in the winter. Just imagine what the weather will be like in Sochi in 2014," laughs Alex the Great.

"My current emotions are different from those I had before the Turin-2006. I had jimjams there when a 20-year old guy arrived at the Olympics."

"But now I am more experienced, passed through the Stanley Cup play-offs, and became the World Champion. So I have so experience on my shoulders."

"Important is the fact that people should expect a lot not from me personally bur from the entire team. Personal results here are of smaller significance than the team ones."

"I have not scored for Washington in three last matches and there is nothing wrong with me I am just accumulating goals for the Olympic tournament," smiles the player.