Czech government bans Russian NHLers from upcoming games

The Czech government has informed the NHL that it will not allow Russian born players to participate in the upcoming NHL Global Series games hosted in Prague next month.

The Nashville Predators and San Jose Sharks are scheduled to play back to back games in Prague but players like Alexander Barabanov, Evgeny Schevnikov and Yakov Trenin will not be allowed to participate.

Interestingly enough, former NHL superstar and Hall of Famer Dominik Hasek is one of the individuals who has pressed the Czech government to take this stance.

Hasek, of course, fled the former Russian controlled Czechoslovakia in the late 1980s to come to North America and the NHL. He understandably has strong feelings about the Russian Federation.