04-11-2023, 03:58 PMsteveoiscool Wrote: No offense, but this is kind of a ridiculous stance to take. A place of origin is not comparable in the least to examples of racism, sexism, or discrimination. We can continue to treat names and bad faith actors on a case by case basis (such as Name Redacted, or others) without having a heavy handed approach to an entire federation and core part of hockey. Are Igor Larionov or Pavel Datsyuk renders off limits now, cause they could illicit feelings towards present day Russia? Is RISK a dangerous game to let children play? Should we ban America for (most recently) it's stances on allowing transgender athletes to compete (or exist, really)? There's a degree of separation between the SHL and the real world and when you try to combine the two it just doesn't work out.

I think something that you don't understand is that this is bigger player renders (which honestly doesn't matter because Igor Larionov or Pavel Datsyuk are not the symbols of Russia's genocide) or anything hockey related. None of that matters my point is that when I see the Russian flag it makes me sick to my stomach because of all of the messed up things they are doing and it's not a comfortable feeling to see on the SHL site. If you think that is ridiculous then shame on you. 

The point is that the Russian flag represents oppression, genocide and discrimination against millions of Ukrainians. The Oxford Dictionary defines discrimination as "the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of ethnicity, age, sex, or disability." I think it is just plain wrong for you to call it a "ridiculous stance to take" when millions of Ukrainians are threatened with rape, torture, and death and the main point of Russia's war in Ukraine is to eradicate Ukrainian identity and make it part of Russia. If that is something you think we should affiliate the SHL with when thousands of businesses, sporting events and other entities have disassociated themselves from Russia and the world has recognized and reacted to the atrocities that Russia is committing in Ukraine then that is pretty messed up. At the end of the day, Ukrainian ethnicity has been and is continuing to be systemically attacked by Russia which is what the Russian flag and emblem represent. For these reasons I think it is not a symbol that should be associated with the morals and code of ethics the SHL has promoted.