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Canada’s legendary Phil Esposito says Putin enjoys playing ice hockey

The Russian president first appeared on the ice playing ice hockey in 2012

MOSCOW, September 1. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin enjoys playing ice hockey, but he likes more to shoot the puck if compared to his skating skills, Canada’s legendary ice hockey player Phil Esposito told TASS.

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"He is not that good of a skater, but he likes to shoot the puck," Esposito said. "I remember the guys saying that ‘you’ve got to move away from the president’ and I said ‘No, no, I’m going to go stick-by-stick to stop him from shooting, to lift his stick up and steal the puck from him, and he said Phil no, no. I did, and he smiled, and he laughed."

"I think it was great for Putin," to start playing ice hockey, Esposito continued. "I thought it was great that he goes on the ice."

"I didn’t play against him a lot, but I think it was [Alexey] Kasatonov, who said ‘Phil, let him go, let him shoot,’" the Canadian hockey star noted. "But I said, ‘Are you kidding if I’m out there I’m not going to allow it, if I can get the puck I’m going to take the puck, and he goes on ‘let him just shoot’ I said okay relax, I did a couple of times and a couple of times I’d hook the puck away from him."

"He’d smile, actually smiled, and I say ‘Not now!’ Look, you gotta have fun on the ice, you gotta have fun, and he was having fun… He was having fun," Esposito added.

Russian President Putin first appeared on the ice playing ice hockey in 2012, just several hours after his inauguration as part of the traditional Night Ice Hockey League, which was established upon his initiative.

The full text of the interview is available at: https://tass.com/sport/1500717.

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