MOSCOW -- Evgeni Malkin wants to go to the Olympics next February and he hopes the Pittsburgh Penguins will allow him.
Malkin told Russian sports daily Sovetsky Sport he was surprised by the NHL's announcement Monday that it wouldn't halt its season for players to go to South Korea. He says "there's nothing good about this at all."
He also questions why talks didn't continue for longer, pointing out that a final decision on the 2014 Olympics wasn't reached until July 2013.
If Malkin is allowed to go the Olympics by Pittsburgh, he could join fellow Russian star Alex Ovechkin and his Washington Capitals teammates Evgeny Kuznetsov and Dmitry Orlov, who have said they want to play in South Korea.