At the Olympics, Slava Voynov made a comment on Jonathan Quick’s “style,” and how it led to an apparent Fedor Tyutin goal getting disallowed when referees deemed that the net had been displaced from its moorings during the United States’ 3-2 shootout win over Russia on February 15.
Voynov’s post-game quote, as reported by Puck Daddy, is as follows:
“I can tell you myself, because I am his teammate and I play with him. It is in his style to do something like that. Yes. The question is why wasn’t it noticed? That’s the question to the referees.”
As LA Kings Insider noted at the time, there shouldn’t be heavy stock placed in Voynov’s “allegation,” given that it was the English translation of a Russian athlete speaking in his native language, and that it was possible that some context was lost in what Voynov was trying to convey.
After Tuesday’s practice at the University of Denver, Voynov spoke about his quote for the first time.
“It’s a bad translation from a Russian reporter,” he said.
“After the game I asked him, ‘Did you read that? Did you move the net?’ He said, ‘No, I promise.’”
Voynov’s full response is embedded here:
Quick dismissed any controversy over the original quote.
“That’s media spinning words,” Quick said.
Before the team left for Denver on Monday, Anze Kopitar was asked about Voynov’s quote, and how it would be interpreted amongst the team.
“I don’t think there’s going to be any controversy in this locker room, if that’s what you’re asking,” Kopitar said.
Voynov also discussed his Sochi experience after Tuesday’s practice.
On whether he had a good experience at the Olympics:
Yeah, I had a good experience. First time playing at this level for the national team in my homeland.
On the recognition Russian athletes received at the Olympics:
I don’t know. For me, Russian fans are the best in the world. They help us a lot. About the athletes – they stay together all the time. In the Olympic Village, we’d go together for breakfast, lunch, dinner. Team lounge in our house.
On other events he saw during the Olympics:
We went to figure skating once, and I saw couples skating. It’s nice – that was the first time.
On returning to the city of Sochi:
I was there maybe when I was six years old or seven years old. It’s different. But when I was [there] in August in the Olympics camp for a couple days, it’s a surprise for me. It’s all built, everything new, good organization. Everything was built for us, for hockey players…You go to the arena, we walked 10 minutes from the locker room to my room. [Reporter: Easy?] Easy.
On how the Russians finished without a medal:
How it happened, I can’t find the answer for that question. Nobody knows what happened. We worked hard, practiced hard, we had meetings to try to learn about who we play against – Slovenia, it doesn’t matter, Norway, U.S., Finland. I don’t know. We made some mistakes somewhere. We don’t know where.
On the experience of playing against Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown and Jonathan Quick:
I played not against Anze and Dustin, I played against Slovenia and America. I know it’s fun because all season we played together and [at the Olympics] we played against each other.
Rules for Blog Commenting
Repeated violations of the blog rules will result in site bans, commensurate with the nature and number of offenses.
Please flag any comments that violate the site rules for moderation. For immediate problems regarding problematic posts, please email zdooley@lakings.com.