\u00a0A final decision is expected Nov. 25.<\/p>\n
The IIHF refused an interview with CBC, but its recent comments contradict a\u00a0statement<\/a>\u00a0issued on Nov. 2\u00a0that China was a “confirmed” participant in the Olympic tournament and that the hockey federation wasn’t going to remove the team.<\/p>\n It’s the latest round of uncertainty for the Chinese hockey squad. As the host of the next Olympics, China has been granted the right to field a squad in the 12-team tournament, but it has struggled to ice a competitive one.<\/p>\n “I don’t see any solutions,” said Dave King, who has coached hockey teams in the Olympics,\u00a0the\u00a0NHL\u00a0and\u00a0the\u00a0Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), which mostly consists of teams from Russia, along with other eastern European countries and now China.<\/p>\n King said\u00a0if China, which is currently ranked 32nd in the world, is replaced with Norway, it’s not much better.<\/p>\n “It is still going to be a huge situation\u00a0with possibilities for embarrassment.”<\/p>\n Officials with the IIHF are in Moscow this week analyzing China’s prospects by watching Beijing’s Kunlun Red Star play two KHL games and evaluating which of the more than 20 foreign players on the team are eligible to compete at the Olympics.<\/p>\n Kunlun Red Star\u00a0was originally based in China, but moved to a suburb of Moscow in 2020 because COVID-19\u00a0restrictions made it too difficult to remain in Beijing\u00a0and keep playing in the KHL.<\/p>\n The team, which was founded in 2016, is near the bottom of the KHL\u00a0standings. The majority of its players\u00a0\u2014 19, in fact\u00a0\u2014\u00a0are Canadian and have been recruited by China to help bolster its hockey talent and form the backbone of the country’s national team.<\/p>\n Many, like 21-year-old goaltender\u00a0Paris O’Brien, who is from Coquitlam, B.C.,\u00a0have Chinese heritage and say it is an honour to play for a country developing its hockey program.<\/p>\n “It is pretty surreal,” he said.\u00a0“It is like we are introducing hockey to China and helping develop the game and let the fans show how we play and what hockey is all about.”<\/p>\n When\u00a0Kunlun Red Star\u00a0faced off against Amur, a team from Russia’s far east, on Tuesday night, the 7,000-seat Mytishchi Arena near Moscow\u00a0was mostly empty.<\/p>\n A few dozen fans were on hand and most were cheering for Amur, but sitting behind one of the goals was a cluster of Kunlun supporters. Two teenagers waving a Chinese flag and a Kunlun banner told CBC they were cheering for China because someone “suggested” they should.<\/p>\n Another man, who said his nickname was Lenin because he resembled the former Soviet revolutionary leader, said he is a big supporter of China and communism, so he thought he should support the country’s hockey team.<\/p>\n “We thank the Canadians for teaching them how to play,” said Alexander Rubinkov, the Lenin lookalike,\u00a0who was watching the game with his family.<\/p>\n Also watching was a row of\u00a0Chinese players wearing Kunlun jackets who were not in the lineup that night.\u00a0Looking down from the skyboxes were officials with the IIHF.<\/p>\n Kunlun,\u00a0which at one point in the game was down 4-0, rallied back to send it into overtime, but ended up losing.\u00a0The team has lost 75 per cent of its games this season.<\/p>\n Afterwards, CBC requested to speak with Canadian players on the team and were granted permission, but told not to ask anything about the Olympics.<\/p>\n The players themselves, however,\u00a0brought\u00a0it up, saying it was the ultimate goal.<\/p>\n “We just have to hopefully get some more wins before that,” said Ethan Werek, 30, a forward from Goodwood, Ont., who said that the team has great coaching and support\u00a0but has underachieved so far this year.<\/p>\n He said it would be huge exposure for China to play on the world stage and could help further develop its hockey program.<\/p>\n While observers say China has made huge strides at the youth level, the Olympics came too early for its senior team, which faced a series of obstacles, including mismanagement and the\u00a0COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n Mark Dreyer, a Beijing-based writer who publishes a site called\u00a0China Sports Insider<\/u><\/a>, has been following the team since 2017.\u00a0He said at one point, the Kunlun franchise “fell out” with China’s Ice Hockey Association, and various people have been responsible for developing the national team over the years.<\/p>\n It has rotated through general managers and coaching staff.\u00a0Three former coaches, including Canadian Steve Kasper, a former NHL player who coached the Boston Bruins for two seasons, launched a lawsuit against Kunlun for over a million U.S.\u00a0dollars in unpaid compensation.<\/p>\n WATCH | How Canadians ended up on a hockey team that risks being pulled from Olympics:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nCanadian content<\/h2>\n
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