The Nashville Predators and San Jose Sharks are set to play an everyday season hockey sport within the Czech capital subsequent month
The Czech Overseas Ministry has made it clear to the NHL that Russian gamers usually are not welcome in Prague subsequent month.
The Nashville Predators and San Jose Sharks are scheduled to play two common season video games on the Czech capital’s O2 Area on October 7 and eight.
Although defenseman Nikolai Knyzhov received’t be obtainable for the Sharks, additionally they boast Russian ahead Evgeny Svechnikov whereas Nashville has compatriot Yakov Trenin on its books.
As communicated in an announcement by Deputy Overseas Minister Martin Smolek, and shared by the AP, the gamers could be an undesirable a part of the NHL’s journey to his nation.
“We are able to verify that the Czech Overseas Ministry has despatched a letter to the NHL to level out that, at this second, the Czech Republic or every other state within the (visa free) Schengen zone mustn’t problem visas to the Russian gamers to enter our territory,” Smolek mentioned.
The ministry added that the elite North American hockey league had been advised of “ongoing negotiations about banning entry for these residents of the Russian Federation who already had obtained legitimate visas earlier than.”
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The letter comes after legendary former goaltender and two-time Stanley Cup winner Dominik Hasek started calls to ban Russian gamers from heading to Prague when the video games had been introduced in April.
Hasek personally approached the Czech authorities, parliament, senate and international ministry and mentioned that the transfer was “crucial for the help of our Ukrainian ally and security of our residents,” in an interview with a Russian broadcaster that wasn’t aired however later revealed within the Czech media.
“Sure, we don’t need any promotion of the Russian aggression right here,” Hasek tweeted when praising the ministry’s transfer.
“We’re guarding our lives and the lives of our allies within the first place,” he claimed.
Hasek and the ministry’s stance ought to maybe not come as a shock contemplating Hasek demanded that the NHL “should instantly droop contracts for all Russian gamers” on February 26 at the beginning of the navy operation in Ukraine.
“Each athlete represents not solely himself and his membership, but additionally his nation and its values and actions. That could be a reality. If the NHL doesn’t accomplish that, it has oblique co-responsibility for the lifeless in Ukraine,” Hasek went on.
Moreover, the Czech Republic was among the many first EU international locations to cease issuing visas to Russians.
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In keeping with Russian media, nevertheless, the NHL doesn’t anticipate any authorized obstacles for Russian gamers to characteristic within the Prague video games.
“In the event that they come up, the league is not going to play the scheduled matches within the Czech Republic and the golf equipment will play at residence. The golf equipment are all set,” a supply advised RIA Novosti.
The 2 video games in Prague mark the primary time that the NHL has headed to the EU for the reason that pandemic. As well as, hockey hotbed Tampere in Finland may even obtain the Colorado Avalanche and Columbus Blue Jackets for a pair of conferences on November four and 5.
Reigning Stanley Cup champions the Colorado Avalanche have Alexandar Georgiev, Mikhail Maltsev, and Valeri Nichushkin of their squad, and the Blue Jackets can often rely on the skills of Yegor Chinakhov, Vladislav Gavrikov, and Daniil Tarasov, though the latter is presently injured.
Whereas the Finnish authorities’s stance on receiving the Russian gamers is unclear, Finland’s hockey chiefs have beforehand mentioned they are going to to freeze out any gamers that characteristic in Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) from the nationwide group alongside Sweden.
