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IOC bans Russia


James

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Big news for the Olympic hockey tournament.  Looks like Russia-based Russians won't be allowed to participate, but Russian athletes living/training in other countries could (this is how it was in the Rio Games).  The KHL has threatened to boycott if a ban came down, which could mean potential American and Canadian players currently playing in the KHL will be barred from participating.

 

Are there enough Russians playing outside of Russia to form a team?  Could Belarus get in if Russia's out?  Are there enough Belarussians outside of Dinamo Minsk to even field a team?  Would Latvia have the same issue, too?  How bad is it for Finland if Jokerit is barred (Tolvanen, Lepisto, and others)?  If Russia is banned and Belarus gets in, will the groups be re-drawn, or does the US just get a cakewalk with Slovenia, Slovakia, and Belarus in their group?

 

So many questions.  Poor Matt Gilroy.

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Yeah, they're calling it OAR (Olympic Athletes from Russia).  They haven't explicitly stated how it would work for team sports, but in theory they could form their own team.  I doubt they would, though... who would pay travel expenses? who would pay the coach? trainers? etc.

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It just sucks that Russia has so much leverage with the KHL.  IOC ban means KHL boycott means direct negative impact on virtually every other country in the world.  Hopefully the non-Russian KHL teams can band themselves together to prevent a KHL boycott.  That would be easier to do if Latvia or Belarus are in the tournament, though.  17 of the 25 players on Belarus's World Championship squad play in the KHL, as do 12 of the 24 non-NHLers on Latvia's WC roster.  Even Finland had 11 of 22 non-NHLers in the KHL.    

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17 hours ago, James said:

Yeah, they're calling it OAR (Olympic Athletes from Russia).  They haven't explicitly stated how it would work for team sports, but in theory they could form their own team.  I doubt they would, though... who would pay travel expenses? who would pay the coach? trainers? etc.

 

And a bigger problem would be who would pay for the Team's insurance? That subject has always been a difficult issue to resolve. 

 

I doubt we see a Russian or a Belarus team.

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1 hour ago, Salros said:

 

And a bigger problem would be who would pay for the Team's insurance? That subject has always been a difficult issue to resolve. 

 

I doubt we see a Russian or a Belarus team.

 

If they pull Russia out, I would assume the next highest ranked team in qualification would make it.  That would be Belarus, which like you said, seems unlikely.  After that it's Latvia, which will also have an issue if the KHL boycotts.  After that it's France.  Just 2 of France's World Championships players were from the KHL (Da Costa and Damien Fleury).  

 

It'll be very interesting to see how the KHL handles this.

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4 hours ago, RegDunlop said:

CBC had this potential lineup in November.

 

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/wharnsby/canada-olympic-hockey-roster-predictions-1.4379792

 

Definitely a good number of KHL guys on there (Scrivens, Despres, Lee, Brule, Kozun, and more).

damn  thats not  even  a  Nhl caliber  team,  maybe even    worse  than AHL  team. this is going to be a  snoozefest,  Just  send the world Junior team and enjoy  the show

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19 hours ago, James said:

Might be an unpopular opinion, but I think that that roster would easily beat a world junior team when you consider that NHL-signed players aren't eligible.

 

I'm with the Commish on this one. Some of these guys were once solid NHL players. Wolski in Colorado, for example.

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