ADLER, RUSSIA

You can add Otto Sykora to the list of people looking for an explanation from New York Islanders general manager Garth Snow.

Sykora is the general manager of the Slovakian men’s hockey team and wants to know why Snow is not letting Islanders defenceman Lubomir Visnovsky play for Slovakia in the Olympics.

Newsday newspaper quoted Snow saying “we just don’t feel comfortable letting him go.”

Visnovsky returned to the Islanders lineup Jan. 27 and has played the Islanders past five games after missing the previous 46 with a concussion.

Newsday reported Visnovsky accepted the Islanders decision, but it sounds like Sykora is willing to put up a fight.

“If it’s possible he can play and he says he’s okay, he can play, I really don’t understand why he not can play,” Sykora said at Slovak Point in the Adler train station following a media conference with Slovakian defenceman Zdeno Chara.

“If he is injured, we accept this. If he say he’s not injured and he can play and (Snow) say we don’t let him go, we don’t understand this.”

Sykora said he planned to talk to Snow on Friday night. Sykora said the Games are big deal to Visnovsky, 37, since this likely will be his last chance to play at the five-ring circus and the Olympic tournament is a big deal in Slovakia.

“For Lubomir Visnovsky this is last chance to play for national team,” said Sykora. “If he not play, it’s not good for him. He is same than Zdeno Chara and Visnovsky, big here in Slovakia.”

He said Slovakian fans shouldn’t be deprived of seeing their hockey heroes.

“In the Slovakia, No. 1, it’s poor,” Sykora said. “Fifty per cent population ... they don’t work. Fifty per cent population watches these games. These guys, they are special guys from NHL. They are big heroes. This is just one chance bring all together in one time in four years.”