Russia’s Olympic team sports ban leaves some of the NHL’s best players out of Milan

MILAN (AP) — Before he became teammates in the NHL and won the Stanley Cup with Alex Ovechkin on the Washington Capitals, T.J. Oshie shined on the global stage with his shootout heroics that helped the U.S. beat Russia on home ice at the Sochi Olympics in 2014.

A dozen years later, Oshie has gotten to know him so well on a personal level that he’s bummed Ovechkin isn’t able to play this time in Milan.

“I feel bad that ‘O’ can’t go represent his country,” Oshie said recently. “He’s got two young boys that haven’t been able to watch him in the Olympics. So, as a friend, I think that’s very unfortunate that they don’t get to experience that.”

Russia, along with close ally Belarus, has been barred from team sports by the International Olympic Committee and the International Ice Hockey Federation since invading Ukraine just after the Beijing Games in 2022.

And while there’s a general understanding in the hockey community about why Russia is not allowed to compete, there is some disappointment in leaving some of the best players in the world out of the first so-called best-on-best international tournament in a decade.

“You’ll hear the argument made by Russians, as well as by hockey fans in North America, that the Olympic tournament is losing quality in not having the Russians there,” Bruce Berglund, author of “The Moscow Playbook: How Russia Used, Abused, and Transformed Sports in the Hunt for Power,” told The Associated Press by phone Tuesday. “When I’m reading the Russian sports press, commentators will say, ‘Well, this tournament isn’t top level because the Russian team, the best team in the world, isn’t even there.’”

Ovechkin in April broke Wayne Gretzky’s NHL career goals record, and at age 40 he might be on the third line if Russia had a team. Nikita Kucherov ranks third in the league in scoring with 91 points, Kirill Kaprizov is tied for third in goals with 32 and wingers Artemi Panarin and Ivan Demidov would surely have big roles.

The goaltenders who have won the Stanley Cup four out the past six years, Florida’s Sergei Bobrovsky in 2024 and ’25 and Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy in ‘20 and ’21, are also Russian. The New York Rangers’ Igor Shesterkin and Ilya Sorokin are also elite — arguably top five at the position — and one wouldn’t have made the roster with a three-goalie limit.

“It’s a lot of good hockey players that play in the NHL we play against daily, that are top of the points and top players for their team,” Sweden goaltender Jacob Markstrom said. “But I’m not decision maker or the shot caller for everything that’s going on, so that’s out of my pay grade.”

It’s a sensitive topic, especially for players from Europe, and Sweden’s Mika Zibanejad when asked after a practice this week paused and called it “a conversation to be had in a different setting.” 

The NHL has allowed Russians to continue playing since the war broke out, and Commissioner Gary Bettman told the AP at the time that “the Russian players are in an impossible situation.” The league has no say in which countries are eligible to play at the Olympics, world championships or other tournaments run by the IIHF.

With the war still raging, Berglund does not believe an argument can be made for allowing Russia to compete at the Olympics in any team sport. 

“At this moment to have Russia send its hockey team and then to be able to use that as grist for their political mill, I don’t see how — other than a purely hockey argument of the quality of the tournament — you can make the case Russia should be participating,” Berglund said. “Hockey is so important to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin. And whether it’s hockey or any other sport, Russia and Putin’s government uses it for their own political gains.”

Russian geopolitics and the Olympics have intersected several times, including 2022 when Putin waited until after the Beijing Games before invading Ukraine, and 2014 when the war began in the Donbas and included the seizing and annexing of Crimea. That was a day after the closing ceremony in Sochi. 

Long before that, it created the conditions for the “Miracle on Ice” in 1980, when the U.S. as a ragtag group of college kids beat the Soviet Union’s trained professionals on the way to Olympic gold in Lake Placid, New York. One of the Americans on that team from 46 years ago disagrees with not letting Russia play in Milan.

“I’m just incredibly disappointed that Russia is not in the Olympics and from the hockey perspective, definitely, but also even the other sports,” Jack O’Callahan said. “I’m just really disappointed. I think it’s so short-sighted that the IOC is keeping Russia out of the Olympics. That really kind of bugs me.”

The Soviet Union won the Olympics seven times from 1956-88, and then again as the Unified Team in 1992, all during a time when the NHL did not send players to the event. Russia’s only other hockey gold at the Games came in 2018, also when the NHL did not participate, and Kaprizov, Hall of Famer Pavel Datsyuk and Ilya Kovalchuk were part of a dominant team that had a massive talent advantage over the rest of the competition.

This time around, the other countries taking part were able to bring their best players, and Berglund does not think the tournament should have any sort of asterisk without Russia. Those competing certainly wouldn’t consider winning gold in Milan less of an accomplishment.

“Obviously, they have fantastic players,” Sweden’s Jesper Bratt said. “It’s the best on best, but when they’re not here, you take away some of the greatest players. But at the same time, I guess it is the best on best for the ones available.”

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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics