Davis: World Cup of Hockey doesn’t need warmongering Russia and USA

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Keep Russia out of the World Cup of Hockey!

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And unless the U.S. stops bombing Iran, invading Venezuela and strangling Cuba, ban the Americans, too.

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Warmongering nations have been banned from international sports competitions as recently as last month’s Winter Olympics in Italy, where Russian teams were forbidden while some individuals could participate only under a neutral flag. Russian athletes in numerous sports have been banished — or had their participation limited — because President Vladimir Putin ordered his military to invade Ukraine in 2022.

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A dominant hockey nation that has produced NHL superstars Alex Ovechkin and Nikita Kucherov, Russia was also excluded from the inaugural 4 Nations Face-Off one year before the 2026 Olympics. Canada beat the U.S. in the 4 Nations final, but the Americans rebounded with an overtime victory against the Canadians in the men’s Olympic final.

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One week later, just after the U.S. hockey team was feted in Washington, Israel convinced U.S. President Donald Trump to start bombing Iran.

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With both wars continuing and nothing to indicate peace is on the horizon, what’s now the difference between Russia and the U.S.?

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Why should Americans be treated any differently than Russian athletes on the world stage? Yet there’s been limited debate about banning the reigning Olympic champions from the next World Cup of Hockey, an event the NHL plans to schedule every four years to alternate with the Winter Games.

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NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and his league’s governors selfishly boycotted the Olympics for 12 years, but worldwide interest created by the recent Winter Games has suddenly made them realize that regular best-on-best hockey competitions could make them oodles of money. The players have often spoken in favour of best-on-best competitions, which are finally allowing Connor McDavid and Cale Makar to don Maple Leaf jerseys against Stars and Stripes-clad opponents Auston Matthews and Matthew and Brady Tkachuk.

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It’s certainly emotional.

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If they could only figure out the politics.

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Bettman announced this week that the World Cup of Hockey was being planned for 2028 in Edmonton, Calgary and Prague. Eight teams would be competing, Bettman told reporters, without naming the countries. Immediately there was speculation about Russia, with Czechia, Sweden and Finland reportedly threatening to boycott the event if that despised country was participating.

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Nobody asked about the USA, a country that was killing suspected traffickers and civilians before kidnapping Venezuelan president (and apparent drug lord) Nicolás Maduro in a military effort to control that country’s oilfields. Meanwhile the U.S. hierarchy is also plotting to overthrow Cuba’s socialist government, all because political observers believe Trump is trying to hide the infamous Epstein files behind his warring exploits. Teaming with Israel in a war with Iran is Trump’s biggest, most foolish ploy. There are always consequences.