With a World Hockey Championship gold medal on the line against Team Canada, it seems the Russians should have dressed their highest-scoring player on Sunday.
And no, that player isn't NHL goal-scoring champion Alex Ovechkin. It's Vladimir Putin.
Hockey fans mocked Russian President Vladimir Putin and his supposed goal-scoring talents on Sunday, after the Russian national team scored only one goal in an embarrassing 6-1 loss to Canada in the gold medal game.
The World Championship loss came one day after Putin scored eight goals against Russian ex-NHLers in government-run exhibition game in Sochi. Video from the exhibition game shows the 62-year-old coasting through his opponents before burying expert passes from the likes of former NHL star Pavel Bure and Valeri Kamensky.
On Sunday it was the Canadian players who made the game look effortless, as they buried six goals behind Russian netminder Sergei Bobrovsky in the gold medal win.
Twitter users turned on Putin part way through the Russian loss, sarcastically suggesting that he should have suited up for his national squad.
Time for Putin to make a surprise appearance and pull off a miraculous comeback for Russia pic.twitter.com/lhQ3mnMOfe
— Santi ⚡#BeatNewYork (@TBLDiehard) May 17, 2015
Maybe Russia should have that Putin kid who scored 8 goals suit up.
— V M (@v_m_phil) May 17, 2015
Russia should have dressed Putin pic.twitter.com/mXpOZYGX8w
— The Hockey Gods! (@HockeyGods) May 17, 2015
Maybe Russia will get fed up and bring out Putin to score 8 goals in the last five minutes of the game. �� #CANvsRUS #IIHFWorlds #GoCanadaGo
— Jessica-Lyn (@EarlxGreat) May 17, 2015
Putin or bust. #russia #IIHFWolrds #canadiangold
— ck (@drummerer) May 17, 2015
#Putin is on his way to defend #Russia! #IIHFWorlds #CANvsRUS #РоссияКанада pic.twitter.com/kdVDF46whD
— Paul Chen (@Eurodude23) May 17, 2015
Others made light of the ill-tempered Russian president and his anticipated reactions to the loss.
We don’t think Putin can get troops there before the game is over, but you never know. #CANvsRUS #hokejs2015 #GoCanadaGo
— Davis Baumanis (@dbaumanis) May 17, 2015
Putin is making his way to the Russian dressing room, presumably to slap Ovechkin this time.
— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) May 17, 2015
Team Russia might get thrown out the country by putin
— Steve (@SteveWith1E) May 17, 2015
One user with a Putin parody account had a few zingers for the Russian leader.
After my *EIGHT* goals in an @NHL standard game in Sochi yesterday, the whole of Canada is relieved i'm not playing in the final. #CANvsRUS
— Vladimir Putin (@DarthPutinKGB) May 17, 2015
Someone tell @CanadaNATO to stop gloating. They've an invasion to repel. #CANvsRUS
— Vladimir Putin (@DarthPutinKGB) May 17, 2015
If these Russian defensemen were any worse they could play against me at one of my totally legit exhibition matches. #CANvsRUS
— Vladimir Putin (@DarthPutinKGB) May 17, 2015
Putin has often spoken about his love for hockey, as well as his desire for Russia to win at the highest levels of competition. However, his country failed to win a medal with the Winter Olympics in Sochi last year, and failed to defend their World Championship gold medal against Canada on Sunday.
Evgeni Malkin had the only Russian goal in the loss.
