Canada's captain disrespects the Russian Anthem at the World Juniors.

Canada's captain at the World Junior Championship has just stirred up a great deal of controversy and many of his fellow countrymen are not very happy about it. 

For those of you who missed it the Canadians were embarrassed by the Russians on Saturday during the International Ice Hockey Federation's annual tournament and it seems like some of them may have taken that loss to heart. The Canadians were soundly defeated by a score of 6 - 0 and although that in and of itself would be a shocking result for the Canadians, it was what came after the convincing loss that is now making all of the headlines. 

Traditionally after a game at the tournament players from both countries will line up at their respective blue lines and remove their helmets during the playing of the national anthem. It is an entirely uncontroversial part of the spectacle that is the IIHF's annual tournament but this time around it did in fact turn into something of an issue. You see during the playing of the Russian anthem the players representing Russia took issue with the fact that Canada's captain, Barrett Hayton, refused to remove his helmet as the anthem played. They took so much of an issue with it in fact that Russia's own captain left the blue line during the anthem to complain to the officials who were standing at center ice, however they took no action. I suspect the inaction here was actually the result of the fact that there is no real rule prohibiting this kind of behavior. 

Either way it was more than enough to rub the Russian players the wrong way as when it came time for the ceremonial handshake at the end of the game, there were no handshakes forthcoming for Barrett Hayton from the Russia players who felt insulted by his actions. It would have been a bad look for a Canadian player even at the best of times, but coming off the heels of arguably the most embarrassing loss in the history of the World Junior Championship it made Hayton look extremely petty. 

Now I will say that this is a junior tournament which means we are dealing with a lot of young men here, so hopefully this was a lapse in judgement on the part of Hayton and one he can learn and grow from moving forward.