Team Putin featuring Alex Ovechkin vanquishes little kids in pickup game
Vladimir Putin may be one of the most powerful men in the world, but he still pretty much sucks at hockey.
The weekend warrior/Russian President recently joined a group of slightly more talented players—including Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Pavel Bure and Alex Mogilny—for a pickup game against a group of youngsters.
The highlight package from the contest captures Putin’s mastery of the fist bump on the bench, but he’s also shown overskating a puck in the offensive zone while under no defensive pressure. A sloppy play like that, it’s no wonder that the Russian economy is in shambles.
Later, Putin wastes a breakaway chance by floating a soft wrister into the belly of the kid goalie, who is shown raising his arms in anguish, likely anticipating his imminent relocation to a Siberian house league team.
Although no score pops up on the screen, Gabrielle Farber of the Moscow Times reports that Putin’s team actually beat the little kids ... which might be even sorrier than that wrister of his.