First off, let me just state that Hockey is my favorite sport. I love the NHL, and everything they do to promote the game, especially here in the US, makes sense to me. This past weekend the great Alexander Ovechkin became just the second player in NHL to score at least 20 goals in 20 straight seasons. He joined the late great Gordie Howe in achieving this feat.
While this is surely a great accomplishment, most fans know that Ovechkin is chasing a bigger record. Currently ‘Ovie’ is a little more than twenty goals away from matching the career totals of arguably hockey’s greatest player, Wayne Gretzky. There is no way most fans don’t realize the chase especially with the amount of hype and public relations that the NHL is putting behind this chase.
However, while I am all for Ovechkin breaking the record, there is something more that is bothering me about this. In case you didn’t realize it, Ovechkin is Russian. As you know, there is currently a war going on between Russia and Ukraine. Although he hasn’t publicly talked about it, it’s rumored that Ovechkin is a ‘fan’ of Russian president Vladimir Putin, who, in most cases around the world, is the enemy.
This is NOT the reason for my disdain, however. In February, The NHL will be conducting a huge midseason tournament called the Four Nations Faceoff. It’s the NHL’s example of filling rosters of the best players the NHL has to offer and having them compete in a tournament to award a champion.
It’s a round-robin that’s the NHL’s precursor to having the pros back in the Winter Olympics the following year. The four nations competing in the tournament are the USA, Canada, Sweden and Finland. One country omitted from this challenge, who most certainly should be involved, is Russia!
From what I am being told, the league is making a stand against Russia due to the war in Ukraine. Yet it’s funny they still let the Russian players compete for their respective teams during the regular season! The league is promoting this tournament big time, just like the Ovechkin goal chase. Yet, in one case, it’s OK to promote Russian participation, but in another case, it’s not.?
If the NHL had compiled a Russian team for the Four Nations Faceoff, it’s my belief they would win.ould be a heavy favorite to win the Gold medal. The goaltending alone would make them hard to beat! Imagine a roster where Igor Shesterkin, Sergei Bobrovsky, and Andrei Vasilevskiy would be in the net! Not to At least they w mention superstars like Ovechkin, Nikita Kucherov, and Karil Kiprosov filling the net. I really believe the Russians would be the team to beat!
I am all for promoting the sport of hockey. Sadly in most US circles it is still the fourth most popular major sport. But how can you not have the Russians compete in the tournament? Look at some other sports for examples.
The WTA has four major tournaments that take place each year, and all Russian players are allowed to compete for a title. They don’t omit them from competing. And I will say it again, it’s not like the NHL is not letting Russian players play during the season. But for tournament sake they can’t? I don’t believe this is an edict from the NHL players association. I think this decision was made by Commissioner Gary Bettman and the suits in the NHL office.
So I’ll ask these suits, I guess it is ok to cheer on Ovechkin, promote and coddle him as he chases probably the greatest record in NHL history. However, don’t you dare let those nasty Russians play in our sacred Four Nations Faceoff ! I call hypocrisy on the NHL and it looks foolish.
I can guarantee you as Ovechkin gets closer to breaking Gretzky’s record the NHL will even increase their PR agenda. Heck, they will probably even have Gretzky travel around the country so he can be in the arena the night Ovie breaks the record. Like I said, the NHL usually gets it! Just not this time.
The league started its version of the Winter Classic years ago so we could watch NHL games being played outside on New Years Day. They have become a huge hit which has led to even more outdoor games spread out during the year. They are first rate when it comes to promoting the brand. But with the Four Nations Tournament, which should really be 5 or 6 Nations, they are missing the boat.
Sadly, it’s too late to fix this error, but I do hope in the future, the NHL includes Russia in the next tournament. Then it can showcase ALL the greats the league has to offer!
Here is an idea: Back to the WTA, when it comes to showing which a player and country they represent. In most cases, they usually leave the area blank without any flag representation. How about adding a Russian squad and calling them team “Eastern Europe” or something like that?
It’s simply a shame we are about to witness a great hockey tournament in a few weeks, yet it won’t be complete with all the league “greats.” Good luck to Ovechkin as he looks to break the goal-scoring record. As far as omitting Russia from the Four Nations Faceoff tournament, I put the league in the penalty box!
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