MOSCOW, July 9 (R-Sport) - The Kontinental Hockey League has done everything possible to help the Russian national team succeed at the Sochi 2014 Olympics, the league's chief told R-Sport on Tuesday.
The KHL will halt next season’s schedule a full two weeks before the start of the Winter Games hockey tournament, a full 11 days before the NHL is expected to break, though the North American league is yet to give final consent.
"We believe the KHL has done everything it can for the national team," Alexander Medvedev told R-Sport. "The main issue has been the KHL calendar, which we have changed according to the wishes of the head coach," he added.
The 52-game KHL season, which opens on September 4 in Moscow, will break on January 30, 2014, and resume on February 26. The first Olympic hockey game is scheduled for February 12.
NHL officials have said its league would pause on February 9, giving Olympians only three days to fly to Europe.
The KHL’s two-week hiatus means the Russian national team could stage a lengthy training camp with KHLers before stalwarts Alexander Ovechkin, Yevgeny Malkin, Pavel Datsyuk and Ilya Kovalchuk arrive from North America.
Russia is still reeling from a quarterfinals defeat at the world hockey championship in Stockholm last month, when they lost 8-3 to the United States. They suffered a humiliating 2-1 preliminary-round loss to France, which is ranked 13th in the world, raising questions about the national program’s potential as Russia gets set to host its first Winter Olympics.
In 2010, the league paused on February 8, five days before the tournament opened at the Vancouver Olympics.
