I've heard of spinning stories before, but KHL President Alexander Medvedev just spun this Alexander Radulov and Andrei Kostitsyn story so much I got motion sickness.
Or maybe that was just from what he said.
By now you're familiar with the facts of the story: Radulov and Kostitsyn were suspended for Game 3 by the Predators in their second-round series to the Coyotes. They then remained out per coach Barry Trotz's decision to stick with the winning lineup from Game 3.
You also know there was quite the tug-of-war over Radulov in the past couple of years, the ultimate pawn in the NHL and KHL back-and-forth. Radulov is Russian and Kostitsyn is Belarusian.
Now that we've reset the background, let's get to Medvedev's quote, shall we? You're going to love this.
KHL Pres Medvedev: "The story with Radulov breaking team rules is NSH payback to him for not signing in NSH long term." #Speechless
— Dmitry Chesnokov (@dchesnokov) May 9, 2012
Wait, what? Did he really just suggest that? He's aware that the Predators fought tooth and nail to bring Radulov over to the States this season and rushed to get him into the lineup, right? If they wanted to punish Radulov, why not suspend him during the regular season instead of, you know, when they're down 0-2 in a playoff series?
It's a stunning statement to make. It's hard to believe it's actually serious but it wouldn't surprise me if it were. U.S.-based Russian reporter Slava Malamud mentioned last week that the Russian media was already labeling it politics, so why not the man in charge of KHL politics taking the same stance?
The NHL doesn't seem to care about the KHL the way the KHL cares about the NHL, which is understandable. The NHL is the big brother, the one that's been around and has the established pedigree. The KHL wants to knock them off.
But again, really? Does the KHL president actually believe what he's saying?
Well maybe not, but it is still all about politics. Radulov is all but certain to return to the KHL next season and Fedor Fedin of Russian Machine Never Breaks suggests that this was a push to get Kostitsyn to come to the KHL with Radulov. "Hey, you should feel persecuted, come to Russia!"
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