Gotta See It: Canada-Russia line brawl breaks out at Sochi Open

Tim and Sid discuss whether people will still watch the Olympics despite the NHL electing to skip the tournament.

The hockey rivalry between Canada and Russia is alive and well.

The Canadian men’s team met Russia-2 on the ice on Monday during the Sochi Hockey Open, a tournament to evaluate players ahead of the 2018 Olympic Games in PyeongChang, South Korea next February.

The whole game was a pretty rough affair.

But the heat was turned up at the end of the second period when a scuffle near the benches turned into an all-out line brawl:

The two teams tallied 64 penalty minutes between them before the final buzzer. Despite outshooting the Russian squad 36-22 (including 19-2 in the second period), Team Canada lost 3-2. Canada now has a 1-1 record in the tournament — it beat HC Sochi 1-0 on Sunday — and will play Metallurg Magnitogorsk in the third-place game on Wednesday.

The NHL announced back in April that it would not be sending its players to the Olympics, and deputy commissioner Bill Daly confirmed on Monday that any player who has an active NHL contract will not be allowed to suit up during the Games, giving these pre-Olympic tournaments a bit of extra importance in order to evaluate players who could make up each nation’s roster.

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