It all began when the Four Nations junior tournament usually held in November was cancelled. That’s when Russian Hockey decided to send their junior team to the Karjala Cup — a senior men’s national team competition and part of the Euro Hockey Tour. There was much consternation.
Could Russia have consulted first? They could have. They could have been conciliatory, even neighbourly, and discussed their plan with the other three teams: Finland, Sweden and Czechia. The moon could turn pink and the sky yellow too. Russia pissed off the other countries, particularly host Finland, exactly as they expected to, and they blandly smiled and held formal press conferences to introduce their “senior men’s national team” as they kept calling them.