The Russians and Belarusians haven’t been able to play since last summer’s postponed tournaments in Edmonton and Red Deer, and it’s no different now in Halifax and Moncton.

“For the second championship in a row, the World Championship level is dropping catastrophically. This is not a personal opinion, but facts that everyone can see. Instead of determining the strongest teams in the world, the IIHF chose to destroy all principles of healthy competition and prevent one of the best teams on the planet from competing. Again. What do you get from this? Well, what we have already seen in the groups and we are now seeing in the qualifiers, ”writes Panichev.

“Those matches cannot be called anything other than shameful. There should be fewer and fewer such matches in the knockout segment, but on the contrary, they have become a norm in what used to be the best youth tournament, ”the site says. e-mail of the above-mentioned portal.

“At first, the Czechs, who began to feel more important and freer without Russian representation, made fun of the Swiss. If the Russians had been in Canada, the Czechs would probably have ended their pilgrimage with the tournament long ago and returned home. Now this national team has reached Top four by beating the opponent 9 to 1. Is that normal? ”Panishev asks.

The author somehow forgot that the choice of coach Radim Rolek at the tournament performed excellently and confidently, thanks to which he also got to Canada and was no worse even in the overtime defeat by Sweden …

“The level of the tournament is shown not only by the quarterfinals of the Czech Republic, but also by the victory of the USA over Germany 11: 1. Canadian prodigy Conor Bedard with records and truly brilliant hockey has no one to follow. With the full approval of the International Hockey Organization, the championship has slipped In the abyss before our eyes, ”Panishev emphasizes.

According to his claim, the national federations of the participating countries know that their players are suffering from the absence of Russia. “Swedes, Finns, Czechs, Americans and Canadians also do not gain the necessary experience and develop as much as they can. It is always necessary and important to compete with the best. Otherwise, you can go out into your own backyard and compete for world championship medals. But it is clear that our boys suffer more due to the lack of international experience. “.

“We hope that at least here in the semifinals we can do without the results of 11: 0 or 13: 2. But how nice it was to live in anticipation of the match Russia – Canada!