Dominik Hasek slams NHL, Gary Bettman for giving spotlight to Alex Ovechkin’s son at NHL All-Star weekend

Hall of Fame goaltender Dominik Hasek once again urged the NHL to pay attention to Russian players during the country’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

During the 2023 NHL Skills Challenge on Friday night, Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby teamed up for the Breakaway Challenge. A pair of NHL legends rolled across the ice with Ovechkin’s 4-year-old son Sergei and allowed him to hit the puck past legendary goaltender Roberto Luongo into the net.

For many people watching this event, it was a fun moment involving two of the best players in NHL history. However, Hasek saw it in a different light. The day after the skill competition, Hasek tweeted a photo of Sergei Ovechkin scoring a goal and criticized the NHL, as well as Commissioner Gary Bettman, for glorifying Russia’s All-Star Game and his son.

Ovechkin has experience supporting Russian President Vladimir Putin. In 2017, Ovechkin founded a social movement called Team Putin to support Putin’s re-election bid. Ovechkin’s Instagram profile photo is still a photo of him posing with Putin.

Although Ovechkin has supported Putin for most of his career, the Washington Capitals star opposed the war in February 2022. After Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, Ovechkin called Putin “my president” and stated that “it’s a tough situation for both sides right now” before calling for an end to the war.

“Please stop the war,” Ovechkin said. “It doesn’t matter who is at war – Russia, Ukraine, different countries – I think we live in the world, like, we should live in the world and the big world.”

Hašek, a native of the Czech Republic, called on the NHL and other professional sports leagues. prohibit Russian athletes from participating in competitions until the country stops invading Ukraine. In October, the Nashville Predators and San Jose Sharks played the NHL Global Series in Prague, Czech Republic, and Hasek stated that this would be “an unforgivable act”. allow Russian players to participate.

Despite Hasek’s criticism, the NHL did not impose any sanctions on Russian players.