Washington plays in Ottawa on Tuesday night, and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress intends to be outside the Canadian Tire Center when they arrive. The group says it is there to denounce Alex Ovechkin’s support for Vladimir Putin.
It is Ovechkin’s first game in Canada since he announced that this, his 22nd NHL season, will be his last. It is also the first of five Canadian dates in the next six weeks.
What is actually planned
A demonstration outside the arena and a petition.
La Presse Canadienne reported Monday that the Congress is organizing the rally and also backs calls for Canada to impose sanctions on Ovechkin over his ties to the Russian president. CTV News reported the same day that a petition is asking the federal government to do exactly that.
Neither report gives a start time or an expected turnout. Puck drop is 7 p.m. Eastern.
The specific trigger is recent. Ovechkin appeared in September in a campaign advertisement for Putin’s political party, which drew questions to the NHL itself at the time. He had expressed support for Putin before that, and after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, he called for the war to end.
This is not the first time Canada has raised it
The Ottawa protest arrives on top of several years of the same argument, and Canadian voices have been among the loudest in it.
Jason Kenney, the former Alberta premier, called a Capitals statement about Ovechkin a lie. Dominik Hasek has repeatedly called for him to be banned from international hockey. And when he was asked about it directly on camera, he walked out of the interview.
Four more Canadian cities are on the schedule
Tuesday is not a one-off. Washington’s schedule takes them across Canada before the end of December.
| Date | Opponent | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| Tue 10 Nov | Ottawa Senators | Canadian Tire Centre |
| Thu 3 Dec | Edmonton Oilers | Rogers Place |
| Sat 5 Dec | Calgary Flames | Scotiabank Saddledome |
| Mon 7 Dec | Vancouver Canucks | Rogers Arena |
| Mon 21 Dec | Toronto Maple Leafs | Scotiabank Arena |
Five buildings in six weeks, in a country that has taken in tens of thousands of Ukrainians since 2022.
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