Russian captain scores and mocks the crowd with his celly at World Juniors!

Russian captain rubs salt in the wound.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 5 years ago
Russian captain scores and mocks the crowd with his celly at World Juniors!
Joel Marklund/Bildbyran/Zuma

Well this is certainly going to polarize a ton of fans who have been paying close attention to the International Ice Hockey Federations World Junior Championship.

As many of your readers will already know Klim Kostin, the young man currently captaining Russia at the World Junior tournament, courted controversy this week when he acted out following a very tough defeat at the hands of the American squad by a score of 2 - 1. Following the loss Kostin displayed very poor sportsmanship as he tossed his helmet during the game's closing ceremonies, even giving away the gift he received following the game in disgust. His actions drew a loud chorus of boos from the crowd which certainly didn't help Kostin' attitude at the time and cameras at the event even caught him mouthing curse words to the people in attendance in Vancouver, Canada. 

It certainly had painted Kostin in a very bad light but the 19 year old seemed to win a great many fans back over to his side earlier today when he issued what appeared to be a heartfelt apology to the fans in attendance, his family, his team, and perhaps most importantly of all his country. Here is that apology unedited and in full:

When I left the ice after our loss to the United States, I was shown a video of what happened and how I acted. I would like to apologize.

 I am no different than any American or Canadian. I wanted to win badly for my teammates, my family, and my country. The loss was painful and hard. In my disappointment and hurt, I acted poorly. 

Apologies to the American players, apologies to the fans in Vancouver and all the hockey fans who were watching. I shouldn't have acted that way. 

After seeing the video I realized that is not how I want to represent myself, my family, and my country. Please accept my apologies.

In spite of his apology however it was made very clear today that Kostin was still very sour about the boos he receiving from the Canadian crowd earlier this week, as he went out of his way to mock them today in response to those boos. Kostin, playing in the bronze medal game for Russia, managed to find the back of the net with a shot from beyond the face off circles, he then proceeded to immediately stick both of his fingers in his ears.

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There's no mistaking the message and the intent behind this celly from Kostin, although whether you think it is justified or not will likely depend on how you view this situation. Kostin is now on the receiving end of a loud chorus of boos from the Vancouver crowd every single time that the puck touches his stick so I think it's safe to say how the fans in Vancouver feel about this. That being said this is a 19 year old kid who was booed and taunted mercilessly just a few short hours ago so I can easily see why he would want a little payback. 

It may however taint some people's view of his apology earlier today.

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