More negative publicity for the Capitals, courtesy of Dmitry Orlov's wife.

While many have argued that the Washington Capitals have been the unfair targets of criticism in recent days, and quite frankly I would be one of the people in agreement with that position, it is hard to argue that the players on the Capitals roster haven't made things unnecessarily difficult on themselves.

First it was team captain Alexander Ovechkin who failed to condemn the actions taken against the Ukraine by his home country of Russia, something that was viewed poorly given Ovechkin's extensive history with Russian president Vladimir Putin including campaigning for the Russian leader's reelection in 2017. Now there is yet more negative publicity coming the way of the Washington Capitals, this time courtesy of Dmitry Orlov's wife.

Recently former Russian gymnast Daria Dmitrieva published her thoughts on Instagram where she expressed support for her home country and made some inflammatory statements regarding the people of Ukraine as well as fellow Russians who were protesting the actions of their government. That is all well and good, and she is entitled to her opinion, but Orlov's wife Varvara Amosova also expressed her support for this statements, although it appears to have since been retracted.

The post was initially highlighted by Czech National Hockey League play by play announcer for TV NOVA Sport Roman Jedlicka.

The post has since been picked up by media who have translated some of the statements, statements that include labeling Russians who have spoken out against the actions of Vladimir Putin as "traitors to the motherland."

The original Instagram post is still available, although as I mentioned Orlov's wife appears to have retracted her support for the statement, and when translated to Russian the claims made in the most appear to be quite extreme in their nature.

Here is just a sample via Google translate:

Dear countrymen!
I am one of the few athletes in our country, I consider it necessary to express my position on what is happening on the territory of the fraternal Republic of Ukraine, captured by the Nazi regime. Too many of us turned out to be traitors to the motherland, or narrow-minded people who do not understand the essence of the incident with a multi-million audience!

I will speak briefly and will not be clever here, because I am not a politician!

I am STRONGLY AGAINST WAR!!!
But I LOVE OUR HOMELAND!!!
AND I FULLY SUPPORT V.V. PUTIN!!! He is our president and society should consolidate around our leader in the current difficult time for the country!

The post gets much, much darker from this point forward and for that reason I don't feel comfortable sharing all of it here. If you wish to see more you can see the full post in its original form, on Instagram, below:

I can't say why Orlov's wife has since retracted her support of this post, but I have to believe that if the Capitals were made aware of it they likely would have requested she do so.