54 years ago, Canada and Russia held an eight game hockey series, the Canada Russia hockey summit. Four games in Canada and four subsequent games in Moscow. Canadians thought it would be a piece of cake. The Russians blasted Canada in the first game something like 7 to 3. Canada finally won the series with four wins three losses and one tie. They won the final game in Moscow with Paul Henderson scoring the winning goal with less than a minute left in the game. There were 3000 Canadians in attendance at the Moscow games. And their battle cry was DA DA CANADA NYET NYET SOVIET.
After Russia invaded Ukraine, in 2022, Russia was banned from all international sports, including hockey. The Court of Arbitration for Sport has ruled that the international ice hockey Federation (IIHF) must allow Russia to play in its hockey tournaments starting with the world junior hockey championships to be held this year in Red Deer and Edmonton
This 10 team tournament is set to start off on Boxing Day, December 26. The IIHF has notified Norway that they will be dropped out of the tournament, and Russia will take their place. This has set off a blizzard of controversy. Prime Minister Mark Carney has already stated that Russia will not be allowed to play in the tournament. Sweden, one of the other teams in the tournament has already said that they will not play Russia if Russia comes to the tournament. Other countries in the tournament will most likely boycott in the next couple days. Danielle Smith, the premier of Alberta has remained silent. Of course she has. What makes this more interesting is that 10% of Albertans are of Ukrainian heritage.
So what is going to happen? As the son of parents who chose to emigrate to Canada rather than stay in Poland behind the iron curtain, I fully support the stand taken by Mark Carney. This is going to be a real mess. If the IIHF follows the ruling of the court of arbitration for sports there might be, there will be a number of teams boycotting the tournament. I do not know what sanctions the IIHF will receive if they do not allow Russia to participate. The tournament could be cancelled altogether, which would be quite upsetting to Canadian hockey fans particularly those in Alberta, who will be attending the games.
There is still a month for this to get settled and hopefully it will. But for me, I would rather the tournament be cancelled than Russia be allowed to participate
DA DA CANADA NYET NYET SOVIET
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