The NHL, it seems, will not reinvent the wheel, and in the event that the Russian team is still suspended from world sporting events, it is ready to consider the “Olympic” option for admitting our team to its World Cup in 2024. And this means that the Russians will perform without a flag and an anthem.

The NHL does not know what to do with the Russian team

The NHL is trying in every possible way to avoid questions about the Russian team at the upcoming World Cup 2024, which the league has already managed to announce. What to do with a nation removed from world sports, overseas really do not understand. But the NHL is not ready to give up superstars in the person of Alexander Ovechkin, Andrey Vasilevsky and many others.

Andrey Vasilevsky / Photo: © Vit Simanek / Global Look Press

Therefore, now the functionaries answer any question about the participation of Russians in the upcoming tournament very vaguely. As vice commissioner Bill Daly did during the NHL media tour:

“Of course, we, like, for sure, the Russian players, would like their participation,” he said. “But we need to figure out how we can ensure that.”

Nothing new, no specifics, just a desire that has been voiced in the NHL more than once. All in all, a perfect political response. But North American insiders have much more specific news.

The NHL decided to “write off” the decision

Thus, the media reported that the NHL may abandon innovative ideas. For example, there was a variant with the challenge of the players of the Russian national team to the European national team – a team that caused a rustle at the last World Cup in 2016, where it reached the final and could not cope only with invincible Canada.

It would be an incredibly interesting experiment that could bring together the best hockey players who grew up outside of Canada and the United States. And this is real competition for Canadians. But to implement this project in the NHL will not. Moreover, they decided to abandon the European team altogether, as well as the North American team, which was made up of young overseas stars. The format will be more classic: with ten participating teams, two of which will be eliminated in the preliminary round. But what to do with Russia?

Obviously, the league will look to other sports tournaments where Russia has played while under sanctions. As, for example, it was at the last two Olympics, where, due to doping scandals, Russian athletes competed without a flag, performing under the white banner of the ROC, and without an anthem, listening to Tchaikovsky on the podium.

Photo: © Maddie Meyer / Staff / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

FHR team?

This is a win-win solution to the problem. The fact that it has already been tested at the world’s largest competitions and has not provoked protest from Russian athletes suggests that hockey players will certainly not mind.

After all, when else will Ovechkin, Panarin, Kucherov and Vasilevsky have a chance to play on the same team against the best of the best again? By the next Olympics, in which the NHL has not yet guaranteed the participation of its hockey players, each of them will be significantly over 30, and Ovi will be 41 at all – the best years will probably be behind us. And will Russia be allowed to these Games …

But what would such a team be called? There are no insiders from the NHL on this score, but the most logical assumption, by analogy with the Olympic team, is the team of the FHR – the Russian Hockey Federation.

Photo: © RIA Novosti / Grigory Sysoev

Her flag is recognizable, and to some it may seem even more patriotic than the country’s national banner: there is not only a tricolor behind the hockey player, but also the coat of arms of Russia. However, in the conditions of the removal of Russia, the cloth under which our best players can go on the ice is just a formality. Fans around the world and without a reminder are well aware of the nationality of Ovechkin, Panarin and Kuznetsov.