Russian President Vladimir Putin faced off against legendary Russian players in a Night Hockey League match late Friday on Red Square, just outside of his workplace in the Kremlin.
The president was joined on the ice by Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu and a host of Russian hockey greats, including NHL legends Viacheslav Fetisov, Sergey Fedorov, and Pavel Bure.
The Red Team, which had Putin in its ranks, won 9-3 media said without specifying the president’s individual stats from the game. Putin once scored seven goals in a game played on his 63th birthday, in 2015.
Putin did not take up hockey until he was in his late fifties. Fetisov, who used to be Russia’s sports minister, introduced the head of state to the game. In recent years, the president has made regular appearances on the ice, always sporting his No.11 jersey, as he did on Friday.
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The Night Hockey League (NHL), which shares the abbreviation with North America’s National Hockey League, was created back in 2011 on Putin’s initiative. The project was aimed at making hockey even more popular in Russia and attracting older people to the rinks by giving them the opportunity to play after work.