NHL fans don’t value Russian players as much as Americans and Canadians, and more readily blame them for their team's mistakes, former New York Rangers and Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Darius Kasparaitis told RIA Novosti on Friday.
Even a star like the Penguins’ Evgeny Malkin can never be adored in the same way as his American teammate Sidney Crosby, said Kasparaitis, who was born in Lithuania when it was part of the Soviet Union.
“There’s a couple of stars, like Crosby, who they worship, but the rest, even those like Malkin, who everyone likes, but doesn’t worship. It’s politics,” he said.
"Only Canadians and Americans can work in this league.”
Russians and other foreigners are blamed for their team’s mistakes in a way that does not happen to other players, he added.
“When players play well, Russians or Swedes, everyone says: ‘Oh, they’re the best.’ But if the team’s playing badly, Ovechkin and Malkin don’t do something, then they're the baddies.”
Kasparaitis is on the coaching staff of the KHL team SKA St. Petersburg, but considers that homegrown coaches are treated as incompetent in Russia, he said.
“They think that foreign coaches are the best and that our guys can’t do anything.”
SKA employs a foreign coach, Milos Riha from the Czech Republic, who was confirmed today as coach for next season after calls for him to resign after the team’s 4-0 series shutout defeat to Dynamo Moscow in the Western Conference semifinal.
