[trancehead]

LOL his agent claims it has a national conspiracy to screw russia in sochi

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=435504

Colorado Avalanche goaltender Semyon Varlamov's agent says his client will be cleared when the facts come out regarding his arrest on domestic violence charges on Wednesday night.

"My client is completely innocent of these charges," Paul Theofanous told Adrian Dater of The Denver Post.

Varlamov, according to Denver police, was arrested on second-degree kidnapping and third-degree assault charges stemming from an incident on Tuesday and turned himself in on Wednesday.

He appeared before a judge on Thursday and was released on a $5,000 bond. He is also allowed to travel with the team.

Meanwhile, a Russian government official is claiming that Varlamov's arrest is part of a scheme to prevent Russia from winning the gold medal in men's hockey at next year's Olympic Winter Games in Sochi.

"I'm confident of Semyon's innocence," Russian parliamentarian Igor Ananskikh told a Russian news agency R-Sport. "I think it is a sports and political move, as Varlamov is a candidate for the Russian national team. The main goal is to suspend him from training and games so that he loses practice and misses the Olympics."

He was expected to go head-to-head with fellow countryman Sergei Bobrovsky of the Columbus Blue Jackets for the starting job in net for Russia.

Varlamov is in his sixth NHL season and third with the Avalanche. He has gone 7-1 this season during the team's 10-1-0 start.

The Avalanche play at Dallas on Friday night and Varlamov was scheduled to start in goal. Avalanche head coach Patrick Roy declined to comment on his goaltender's situation overnight, telling The Fan 1043 Radio in Denver that the team will evaluate goalie situation for Friday.