National Post: 'None of that support has been withdrawn, no photos have been changed. Ovechkin and his countrymen have gone about their business. They have played hockey.
'It is true that they are in, as the NHL says, a difficult position. Ovechkin’s wife, parents, and two young children are in Russia. The same is true of many other players. With Russia cracking down on internal criticism and threatening to criminalize the truth about its disastrous war effort as “fake news,” a hockey player who speaks out against the invasion could be putting people close to him at serious risk.
'The same would be true of any athlete. Medvedev is a proud Russian and a defiant one, but even if he disagrees with the invasion and the man behind it — as he well might — asking him to put it on the record sets him up for retaliation. Putin this week took rhetorical aim at Russians who moved to the West as not representing the true country back home, tilling the ground for actions against them.
'And so, the silence from the players is very likely to continue. The games definitely will.'
I'm surprised Stinson didn't begin by denouncing the Canadian government for sending $15Bn in weapons to Saudi Arabia, which have been used in the genocide in Yemen.