In the composition of the Olympic teams from North America were players who only formally do not play for the clubs of the National Hockey League (NHL). This organization has its own list of banned drugs, which does not coincide with the list of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). If they were given a total check, not all athletes could go through the doping control. Before the Olympics, the NHL leadership decided for the first time in 20 years to prohibit their players from playing at the hockey tournament in Pyeongchang. As a result, the teams of the United States and Canada were formed from players performing in less prestigious leagues. Other teams participating in the tournament (Russia, Sweden, Czech Republic, Finland, Slovakia and others) also lost their strongest representatives.

But their losses were not so noticeable, reports "Free Press". However, the system of hockey leagues overseas is arranged in such a way that the lower divisions (first of all, in the AHL) are teams that are farm clubs ("daughters") of the NHL teams. Many players who do not go to the main part of the "big" clubs, get the game practice in the teams level simpler. If necessary, the athlete at any time can return to the holder of the main team. For this reason, Canadians and Americans have recruited hockey players, who at the moment do not play in the NHL, but belong to the Enkhaelov clubs. In the ranks of the US team for the Olympic ice will come Chris Burke, Bobby Butler, John McCarthy and a number of other players who last season and even at the beginning of this year played in the NHL clubs. Some of them were deliberately sent to farm clubs so that they could perform at the Olympics. And the captain of the national team Brian Giont did not go anywhere from the NHL. It's just that he had a contract with the club, and he has not concluded a new one, therefore he is not formally included in the composition of any of the teams. This is a double violation. First, the US team gained an advantage over the rest of the teams that were left without the players. Secondly, the NHL has anti-doping rules that differ from the requirements of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and WADA. Since the NHL - a commercial structure and the IOC does not obey, WADA officials do not have the opportunity to check overseas hockey players throughout the season. That is, they are tested immediately before the Olympics, when doping can be removed from the body. At the same time if someone from the hockey players and catch on violations, they look at it through their fingers. At the last Olympics, Swedish national team player Niklas Backstrom passed a positive doping test. He missed the final match, but neither he nor the team from the games was not ousted. Moreover, he was subsequently awarded a silver Olympic medal. It is not excluded that the reason for such indulgence is the fact that WADA headquarters is in Canada, many officials of the organization are Canadians, who have a special weakness for hockey. If the athletes of the Olympic teams of the United States and Canada checked for banned drugs on the Hamburg account, it is possible that the doping scandal would have developed in a completely different scenario.

Meanwhile, two-time Olympic champion Vyacheslav Fetisov is convinced that the absence of players from the NHL at the Olympics, as well as the fact that our team plays without a flag and a hymn does not make the hockey tournament inadequate. If the Olympic athletes of Russia get "gold" in hockey, it will be a full-fledged reward, the senator is convinced. "In 1992, the. the team also performed under the Olympic flag, and here the guys - Prokhorov, Butsaev, Shtalenkov, many others, - the same Olympic champions like me. The title of Olympic champion is life and honorable. And, by the way, the Olympics still have to be won. The compositions of other teams are by no means weak ", concluded Fetisov.