2026 Winter Olympics men’s hockey tourney will get asterisk with Russia’s absence

Source: New York Post

MILAN — The NHL’s return to the Olympics this year is the closest the world has come to international best-on-best hockey in more than a decade, but it isn’t quite that. Russia’s absence from the men’s ice hockey tournament puts an asterisk on these games, whether we like it or not. You simply cannot describe this 12-country circuit of talent as the crème de la crème without a nation that accounts for approximately 6.