Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin want Team USA to face off with Russians in hockey series

 

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin want the United States and Russia to face off on the ice.

Peace in the war in Ukraine wasn’t the only item on the menu when the President of the United States and his Russian counterpart talked via telephone on Tuesday afternoon — evidently hockey also was a topic of conversation.

In a summary from the call issued by Putin’s office at the Kremlin, the second-last line indicated that Trump is on board with the concept of having Team USA take on the Russian players in a competition.

“Donald Trump supported Vladimir Putin’s idea to organize hockey matches in the USA and Russia between Russian and American players playing in the NHL and KHL,” the Kremlin stated in a news release posted on Putin’s website after the meeting.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Russians have been prohibited from participating in any event hosted by the International Ice Hockey Federation. Both the spring world championship and the IIHF world junior championship have been banned.

The International Olympic Committee will decide whether or not that ban extends to the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Italy in February of next year.


In order to host the 4 Nations Face-Off, which featured participation from representatives of Canada, the United States, Finland, and Sweden, the National Hockey League stopped down for two weeks last month. Russia's representatives were not invited due to the political climate.

 Before Connor McDavid scored the game-winning goal in overtime, Trump, who was outspoken in his support of the Americans, called Team USA the morning before the final matchup versus Canada at TD Garden in Boston to wish the team luck.

It's unclear if American players would even be interested in such a series. The NHL owners, the NHL Players Association, and KHL representatives would all need to approve the series.

At the NHL general managers' meetings in Florida, league officials told the Associated Press they had nothing to say.

This also comes with Washington Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin only eight goals away from surpassing Wayne Gretzky as the NHL’s all-time leading goal-scoring mark of 894 in his career.