Svishchev called the NHL’s decision to ban Russian hockey players from bringing the Stanley Cup home “strange”

Dmitry Svishchev, Chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on Physical Culture and Sports, considers the decision of the NHL to ban Russian hockey players from bringing the Stanley Cup to their homeland strange.

Earlier, Match TV became aware that the league would not allow the Stanley Cup to be brought to Russia.

— The decision, to put it mildly, is strange. All players on the team that wins the Stanley Cup have the right to bring it to their country of origin. It turns out that the Russians can play in the NHL, they can forge victories with their teams, but they can’t show the Cup? The decision is strange, but this should not be surprising because of the current anti-Russian hysteria. But don’t worry, we’ll survive. We have already seen the Stanley Cup many times. And we will only be happy for our guys if they can win this trophy.

Such a decision will be determined only by politics, there is nothing from sports here. It will be wrong, first of all, in relation to the hockey players themselves. In Russia they were honored as heroes. I remember this because I was at events when Alexander Ovechkin brought the Stanley Cup. In any case, the most important thing is that our players win the Cup this year,” Svishchev told RB Sport.

The Stanley Cup has been coming to Russia for the past five years when it was won by Andrey Vasilevsky, Nikita Kucherov, Mikhail Sergachev (2020, 2021, Tampa Bay), Alexander Volkov (2020, Tampa Bay), Vladimir Tarasenko, Ivan Barbashev ( 2019, St. Louis), Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Dmitry Orlov (2018, Washington), Evgeni Malkin (2016, 2017, Pittsburgh), Sergey Gonchar (2017 – as a coach, Pittsburgh).

• The NHL will not allow this year to bring the Stanley Cup to Russia