It Looks Like We'll Have To Wait Even Long For True Best-on-Best International Hockey Since The IOC Banned Russia From The 2026 Olympics
Bruce Bennett. Getty Images.ESPN -- Russian teams, including the powerful ice hockey team, remain banned from next year's Winter Olympics in Italy as part of sanctions imposed following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the International Olympic Committee said Tuesday.
The IOC was responding to reports out of Russia that hockey officials from the country had held talks with the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) over Olympic participation.
Okay so here's the thing--I get it. War is bad and everything. Some things are bigger than sports. I get it, I get it, I get it, I get it.
With that being said….we have waited, what, at least 12 years at this point since we've had true best-on-best international hockey? Not the 4 Nations where there were only four countries competing for an all-star tournament. Not the previous two Winter Olympics where there wasn't any NHL talent on the rosters. Not the World Cup from 2016 that featured teams like the North American 23U squad, and Team Europe. We're talking every country showing up to the Olympics with their best possible roster, to play the best possible tournament.
It's been since the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. Connor McDavid was playing in the OHL. Auston Matthews was with the USNTDP. Matvei Michkov was 9-years-old.
We've waited so long for NHL players to be back in the Olympics. It's the first time an entirely new generation of superstars get a chance to play on the world's biggest stage. And the tournament will always have an asterisk next to it because the Russians weren't allowed to compete.
There just has to be a way the IOC can look at everything that's going on in the world and realize we deserve to see the best possible international hockey tournament. Nobody needs to see Russian athletes compete in figure skating. Nobody needs to see the Russians compete in skiing, or luge, or biathalon, or skeleton. You can ban every Russian athlete on the planet besides the 20-30 players named to the hockey roster. Have them compete under the name of "Giant Asshole Shitbags" for all I care. But the Olympic hockey tournament always needs Russia involved, or else it's just going to be another 4 Nations. The hatred between USA and Canada is great, but we still need another villain. We don't have that same hatred towards Finland and Sweden. Russia is the perfect villain to make every game in the tournament feel bigger. We need them all to change nationalities to Argentina or something.