It appears that the Russians will be made ton pay for their classless gesture at the World Championships yesterday.
Following Team Russia's 6-1 loss at the hands of Canada in the Gold Medal game at the World Hockey Championship final, nearly the entire team left the ice prior to the singing of the Canadian national anthem, something that has never been seen before in International play.
“The IIHF has its own protocol and some sort of punishment will be handed down,” Fasel told
TASS, per
Reuters. “When I saw what had happened, I was very upset. In the 29 world championships that I have had the honor of attending, this is the first time I have seen something like this.
“What the Russian team did was completely out of order.”
Following the game, the Russian team stayed out for the medal ceremony and individual award announcements, but left the surface prior to ‘O Canada’ being played. According to onlookers it was Russian forward Ilya Kovalchuk who waved his teammates off the ice.
To their credit, eight Russian players remained on the ice to show their grace in defeat. Of those eight were Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin. Ovechkin even attempted to convince some of the players not to leave, to no avail.
Some people are just the sorest of losers. No class.
Here is a video of the incident: