PRAGUE, Czech Republic — Three men's world championships have now been played because the International Ice Hockey Federation banned Russian athletes, and the worldwide ice hockey community appears to have completely moved on from the situation without one in all the game's most successful countries.
This yr's IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship was successful in every respect. It broke the previous attendance record while offering exciting competition and a memorable gold medal final.
There was definitely no feeling on site that anything was missing or lacking.
There continues to be strong support for the IIHF exclusion of Russia and Belarus, especially from European countries. These two countries have been banned from all international ice hockey competitions because the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
When asked whether he still considered these sanctions appropriate, Finnish coach Jukka Jalonen replied through the World Cup: “Yes, of course. There is no doubt about that.”
“I think it's pretty reasonable under the circumstances,” said Finnish forward Ahti Oksanen, who played 4 years at Boston University before starting an expert profession closer to home. “I know the situation in North America is a little different than here in Europe because in Europe we are very close to Russia and we deal with them all the time. At the moment I think it's reasonable.”
Finland's coach Jukka Jalonen reacts during a preliminary round match against Canada in Prague. (Robert Hradil / RvS.Media / Getty Images)
As the invasion of Ukraine continues, there is no such thing as a end to the ban in sight.
In fact, with every day that the conflict continues, the likelihood of Russia returning to the 2026 Olympic Games in Milan decreases.
In February, the IIHF prolonged its ban on Russia and Belarus until 2025 for security reasons. A call on the primary Olympic tournament with NHL players in greater than a decade might be made next winter, IIHF President Luc Tardif told reporters on Sunday at a press conference in Prague at the top of the World Championship.
“We will make a decision next February, as always,” said Tardif. “It doesn't matter what the International Olympic Committee decides. That's how we acted before and didn't wait for the Olympic Committee's decision, although of course we talked to them.”
A limited variety of Russian and Belarusian athletes might be allowed to participate within the Summer Olympics in Paris. However, they have to compete as neutral individual athletes without their flag and undergo a verification process that excludes the likelihood that they’ve not actively supported the war in Ukraine.
No Russian or Belarusian team was allowed to qualify for the Paris Games.
While the problem stays a sensitive one amongst hockey players and managers – lots of whom still work with players from these countries within the NHL or elsewhere – the national associations they played for made their case clear with their conduct on the World Championship.
Kazakhstan was the one one in all the 16 participants within the competition to bring a player from the Russian-based KHL.
Sweden, Finland, the Czech Republic, Latvia and France have explicitly banned those that remain within the KHL because the Ukraine invasion began from playing for the national team in 2022. Slovakia joined them ahead of this yr's World Championship, ruling in April that those employed within the KHL were ineligible because that they had not played or trained with the national team all season.
The Swedish Ice Hockey Association was rather more direct when it announced its indefinite ban on KHL players from the national team in August 2022. Chairman Anders Larsson said in an announcement that this was a crucial message to the hockey world because “it is about our core values.”
Russia last participated within the 2021 World Cup, losing within the quarterfinals to Canada during a tournament played under bubble-like conditions in Latvia due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In total, the country has won 27 gold medals at ice hockey world championships – only Canada has won 28 – and is traditionally one in all the largest draws. The tournament was so essential to the Russians that they almost all the time fielded a star-studded team. Top players were willing to take a transatlantic flight immediately after being eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs, even when it meant only playing one or two games on the world championship.
However, participation in international competitions is a privilege, not a right, and it’s difficult to assume anyone welcoming a Russian team back before the war in Ukraine is over.
“I think the whole situation needs to calm down,” Oksanen said. “They need to stop whatever they are doing. After that we can rethink the situation, the whole hockey world can rethink everything. Then hopefully they can come back.”
Jalonen added: “The war must end and then it may take a while before they get involved again.”
It took eight years after the top of World War II for Germany to be allowed to take part in a global hockey competition again on the 1953 World Championship, where it competed under the name West Germany.
The query of tips on how to cope with Russia is currently of particular concern to Finland, which experienced the Winter War in 1939 when the Soviet Union invaded its territory. The two countries share a land border that stretches 1,289 kilometers from north to south.
“They are our neighbors,” said Jalonen. “We have traveled more than 1,000 kilometers with them. Of course we have to be ready because anything can happen. I don't think we are afraid, but we are prepared for anything.”
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