Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff took note of the fact that CSKA Moscow, the Sergei Fedorov-coached defending Gargarin Cup champs, played goaltender Ivan Fedotov, who’s supposed to be playing for the Philadelphia Flyers this year (per the International Ice Hockey Federation’s rules), against the Ak Bars Kazan in the KHL season-opener today, in clearly flouting the IIHF’s ruling.
Fedorov also made a comment to the TASS news agency after CSKA Moscow lost 5-2, and Duff translated it:
After the game, Fedorov went on a tirade against the IIHF. He was also speaking cryptically in support of the Russian regime and President Vladimir Putin. Fedorov even went as far as to reference Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Reading certain things over the past month, I can say with confidence, in my opinion, everyone needs to wake up a long time ago,” TASS reported Fedorov saying. “A special military operation is underway, the world has changed. Therefore, here everyone needs to wake up and understand what realities we live in, and who rules in our country – we or some laws from the other side?”
Two key members of the Russian Five that helped Detroit win the 1996-97 Stanley Cup, Fedorov and Viacheslav Fetisov, have both now spoken strongly in support of the Russian government.
There’s been speculation about NHL interest in Fedorov as a coach following his Russian success. This episode certainly is likley to put any any such talk on the back burner. The NHL won’t look kindly upon someone who is deliberately violating a ruling that was in their favor.
Put bluntly: CSKA stands for the Central Red Army team. They’ve already been used in campaigns supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as have the Ak Bars, and it doesn’t matter what Fedorov might think on his own.
The “Special Military Operation” is something that he absolutely has to support, he absolutely has to support Putin, and that’s the way things are.
As Duff suggests, this isn’t going to help Fedorov earn an NHL resume, and the same is true for Igor Larionov, who coaches Nizhny Novgorod. But in Russia, prominent hockey personalities have taken sides, and it should not surprise us that they’ve made the predictable choice.
They’re going to flip off the IIHF, they’re going to support the Russian war with Ukraine, and they’re going to support Putin, like any prominent Russian has to do, because in Russia, sports are political, and political messages are sent through sports. It’s always been that way.
