The impact of hockey’s Russian backlash, and what’s next

Andrei Svechnikov has two locations listed in his Instagram bio. One is Raleigh, North Carolina, where the Carolina Hurricanes star has played for the past four seasons. The other is Kazan, the Russian city where his family lived after stops in Moscow and Siberia.

Svechnikov is Russian, a designation that’s taken on a different context over the past two weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his army to invade Ukraine. The NHL, never known for emphatic political stances, released a statement that “condemns Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and urges a peaceful resolution as quickly as possible.”

It also expressed concern for the well-being of players, like Svechnikov, “who play in the NHL on behalf of their NHL clubs, and not on behalf of Russia,” acknowledging the players and their families “are being placed in an extremely difficult position.”

For some Russian players, that’s meant online harassment and public disparagement since the war began. The NHL has offered security resources to its teams, and the teams have beefed up their own security to protect these players.

Their teammates also are looking out for them, as Svechnikov’s teammate Jordan Martinook explained on Tuesday.

“It’s not anything that Svech can control. It’s out of his hands. Obviously, you want to support him. You’ve seen it with other players in the league. People are getting some criticism,” Martinook said. “If anybody tries to make him feel bad about the situation, then he’s got 23 brothers who will stick up for him.”

Dan Milstein believes the treatment of Russian players now is tantamount to discrimination. In some ways, he isn’t wrong.

Milstein is Ukrainian. Proudly Ukrainian. He is a political refugee who escaped the Soviet Union on the last day of its existence and has lived in Kyiv. He has watched, from afar, as Russia invaded Ukraine. He said his heart has broken many times over. When he talks with his friends back in Ukraine, he hears bombs exploding in the background.

“I’m sick. The…