The Florida Panthers’ stunning Stanley Cup triumph this season would not have happened without the participation of Russian players. Dmitry Kulikov, Vladimir Tarasenko and especially Sergei Bobrovsky made colossal contributions to the team’s first-ever victory.

However, the clowns from the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) completely ignored the participation of Russians in such a significant success of “Florida”. The material on the organization’s website does not mention the names of our players even once. But is it true that there is no discrimination in Europe?

Ours were great

The Panthers could have won the Stanley Cup a week ago, when they took a 3-0 lead in the final series. Edmonton never gave up and came back into the fight, almost performing a miracle. But a little bit doesn’t count – in the decisive seventh game, Florida achieved a historic victory and became the owner of the main trophy in North American hockey for the first time in history.

It is nice that the winning team included three Russians at once: Sergei Bobrovsky, Dmitry Kulikov and Vladimir Tarasenko. For the first two, this success was their debut in their careers. Kulikov is often unfairly overshadowed by his teammates, although experts highly appreciated his role in winning the Stanley Cup. Dmitry, by the way, became almost the main hero of the seventh game. It was he who made an incredible save, throwing the puck almost from Bobrovsky’s goal line. Moreover, this clearance eventually became an assist when the Panthers scored the decisive goal in the game, series and season.

This is already the second Stanley Cup for Tarasenko. Vladimir had a very difficult season, a trade from Ottawa to Florida and a brilliant result. The Russian was not as productive as in previous years, but he fought for the team and in a number of games was a key link in the Panthers’ victories. And, of course, Bobrovsky’s contribution can safely be called fantastic. Sergei had an amazing season and was simply the best in the most important episodes of the final series. It is absolutely natural that the Russian goalie was recognized as the first star of the seventh game, having reflected 23 out of 24 shots.

Dmitry Kulikov / Photo: © Joel Auerbach / Contributor / Getty Images Sport / Gettyimages.ru

Deliberate mischief

And these guys were ignored in the article on the official IIHF website after Florida’s victory. And this is not just some kind of conspiracy theory or an attempt to pull information by the ears to slander the West. It is enough to read the article by Lucas Aykroyd to understand the intentionality of the author’s actions. The article mentions almost all the Panthers hockey players, but for unknown reasons, three Russians were forgotten.

Do you believe that Aykroyd could simply forget about Sergei Bobrovsky, who became the first star of the match? It would be like ignoring Lionel Messi’s contribution to Argentina’s victory in the World Cup final in Qatar. The same, but to a lesser extent, applies to Kulikov and Tarasenko, who are far from the last players of Florida. That is, this is either complete professional incompetence or a deliberate provocation. Considering that the author has otherwise described everything clearly in his material, the second option suggests itself.

— Maybe this specific person who wrote the article doesn’t like Russians and expressed his position in this way. Maybe there is no politics there, just a human factor. In any case, there will be a bad feeling, but everyone knows who won the Stanley Cup. It seems to me that Europe is misreading the message from America. The Americans themselves don’t prohibit anything, even Sasha Ovechkin is part of the Russian President’s Putin Team, plays calmly in the NHL and everyone respects him, — Olympic champion and State Duma deputy Svetlana Zhurova told Match TV.

There are suspicions that this is not just a human factor, but a deliberate action by the International Ice Hockey Federation. This is far from the first time that the IIHF has allowed itself to discriminate against Russia in this way. Just recently, at the 2024 World Championship, the organization did not include our country in the list of the most titled teams in history. And there are plenty of such examples. So the IIHF has long been out of faith. They will probably soon make a statement that the author of the text simply forgot or forgot. But it is not very clear who these excuses are intended for, because in any case, they will look ridiculous and stupid.