Hall of Fame forward Igor Larionov has been named head coach of Team Russia for the 2021 World Junior Championship, the International Ice Hockey Federation announced Friday.
"This appointment is a great honor for me," Larionov said. "The task of replacing a coach such as Valeri Bragin, who headed the U20 national team for many years, is very difficult."
Larionov was an assistant under Bragin at the 2020 world juniors. Bragin, who served as Russia's bench boss at the event for the last six years, will instead coach the national team at the 2021 World Championship, which is set for May 7-23, 2021 in Belarus and Latvia.
"A difficult task gives me additional energy," Larionov said. "We have many good players who are on the radar of the U20 national team. I see that our team has very big potential. ... I am optimistic about entering a new position and want to help our hockey become a leader on the world stage."
Larionov, 59, captured three Stanley Cups (1997, 1998, 2002) while playing for the Detroit Red Wings. He was a member of the "Russian Five," a nickname given to the group of Russian players from the Soviet Union that played for the club in the 1990s.
The 5-foot-9 pivot won two Olympic gold medals for the Soviet Union in 1984 and 1988 and was an integral member of the Soviet squad that captured the 1981 Canada Cup.
Russia earned silver at the 2020 world juniors, losing to Canada in the final. The 2021 tournament is scheduled for Dec. 26 to Jan. 5, 2021 in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alberta.
Mark Fraser is encouraging those involved in hockey to continue speaking up about racial injustice and bigotry.
"Please don't stop making noise," the former NHL defenseman wrote in The Players' Tribune on Friday. "Please don't go silent. Silence is violence in this case. Be proud to know that you are not only standing on the right side of the fence, but you are also actively using your voices and letting yourself be heard in support of our cause and our fight for justice and equality. Show us your love. Show us you love us. To quote (U.S.) Senator Cory Booker, 'What does love look like in public? It looks like justice.'"
Fraser urged the hockey community to go beyond merely expressing support online.
"Social media posts are great, but it can't end there," he wrote. "Don't let an Instagram story be the only thing you did. That's not enough. We need more. George Floyd needs more! Trayvon Martin needs more! Breonna Taylor needs more! Eric Garner needs more! Ahmaud Arbery needs more!"
Fraser added, "Police are shooting peaceful protestors in the face with rubber bullets and tear gas. Whites and blacks alike. Encourage people to vote and get real leaders in positions of influence who actually want to see change happen. Educate yourself on our struggle. Try to disarm your privilege to better understand. Educate your children about equality. ... But please don't go back to being silent. That will only hurt us in the end."
The 33-year-old played parts of seven NHL seasons and suited up for 219 career games, more than half of which he spent with the New Jersey Devils. Fraser last played in the league in 2014-15, but he's been plying his trade overseas for the last three campaigns, appearing in 50 games for the German league's Schwenningen Wild Wings in 2019-20.
His grandfather, Cecil Fraser, immigrated to Kingston, Ontario, from Kingston, Jamaica, in 1954, and became a lawyer. His father, Hugh, was also a lawyer and competed for Canada as a sprinter in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal.
The Ottawa Senators Foundation will no longer be associated with the NHL club as of Aug. 1, the charity announced Thursday.
"On July 31, 2020, the agreement between the Ottawa Senators Foundation and the club, which grants the foundation the right to use club trademarks, including the Ottawa Senators name, expires," the foundation said in a statement.
"As a first priority, we will look to fulfill our current operational, legal, and charitable obligations by July 31, 2020, after which we will focus on the Foundation's future," the foundation added.
The Senators responded Thursday by announcing the club would begin a request-for-proposals process to consider other philanthropic options.
The organization claimed it informed the foundation "months ago" it planned to initiate that process, and that "foundation leadership protested" and told the team it wouldn't comply.
The Senators Foundation has been primarily dedicated to youth programs in the Ottawa community.
Like many of his peers, Jaccob Slavin has been reflecting on systemic racism in North America over the past 10 days.
"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor," he tweeted Monday, quoting Desmond Tutu, the South African anti-apartheid leader and human rights activist.
Slavin has a different vantage point than the typical white NHL player. A year ago, the Carolina Hurricanes star defenseman and his wife Kylie adopted a daughter, Emersyn, who is black.
"Right now she's a very adorable little black baby. But one day she's going to grow up and people aren't going to see her as a cute baby anymore," Slavin said from the family's home in Raleigh, North Carolina.
"We want to make sure that when she does grow up, that our country is in a much better spot, where they respect her just as much as anybody else walking down the street or sitting in their own home."
Instagram / Jaccob Slavin
Slavin then brought up Breonna Taylor, an unarmed black woman shot in her home by Louisville police during a fruitless drug raid in March. The thought of an older Emersyn finding herself in a similar situation because of the color of her skin troubles the Slavins.
"For myself and my wife, we hate that it took having a black daughter to open our eyes to everything that's going on. That was kind of our starting point," said Slavin, 26, who grew up north of Denver. "We're learning, we don't know everything, but we definitely want - as white people, as people with a platform - to make sure we're standing together with people of color to end the injustices and the racism that's going on."
He added: "We want to make sure if we see racism going on, to be bold in those moments and to call them out. It's easy to do over social media. It's easy to make a post and then stay behind your phone, but to actually call it out in person is a lot more difficult. So, moving forward, we want to make sure that's what we're doing."
Slavin says his family has encountered racism since the adoption. For instance, someone might offhandedly state something like: "Oh my goodness, she is so lucky to have you guys as parents."
"It's not necessarily racism towards Emersyn herself but it's the comments people make," Slavin said. "And they may think they're making them with no intention to be racist, or if you asked them they probably wouldn't say they're racist, but you can see their heart behind some of the things they do ask."
Gregg Forwerck / Getty Images
Jaccob and Kylie Slavin, married since 2015, are devout Christians. They've considered changing churches eventually because the one they attend now is predominantly white and they'd like Emersyn to be exposed to black culture and black role models.
"For us," Jaccob said, "the church is probably going to be the best place (for the family to integrate) because we'll be able to build Christian relationships with people of color, and Emersyn will know who she is in Christ and who she is as a black woman."
Slavin echoed a few of the common messages from a week of discourse about how people who don't experience racism can combat it: Be active. Staying silent isn't good enough. Call out racism when it happens. He talked about petitioning for justice for George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Rodney Reed, and supporting social justice groups like Black Lives Matter, AND Campaign, and Color of Change.
"The first step is to educate yourself and learn from black people what they've been experiencing and have been experiencing their whole lives," Slavin said.
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The NHL will initiate Phase 2 of its Return to Play Plan on June 8, meaning teams will be permitted to reopen training facilities and host up to six players and limited staff for voluntary individual workouts, the league announced Thursday.
"The various measures set out in the Phase 2 Protocol are intended to provide players with a safe and controlled environment in which to resume their conditioning. Phase 2 is not a substitute for training camp," the NHL said in the release.
The 2019-20 season was put on pause March 12. The league decided to end the regular season May 26 and announced its plans for a 24-team playoff played within a timeline yet to be determined.
Phase 3 will include training camps, which won't begin before July 10. Cities will also need clearance from medical and civil authorities before the NHL can proceed.
Former NHL star Jarome Iginla is encouraged by the sight of thousands across North America protesting in the wake of George Floyd's death while in police custody in Minneapolis last week.
Notably, the 42-year-old is pleased to see people from all walks of life publicly united in fighting racial injustice.
"I like to see that it's not just black people out protesting together; it's white people, black people, all races sharing a message," Iginla said on Sportsnet's "31 Thoughts" podcast.
Iginla stressed the importance of the demonstrations and trusts that they can bring about positive change.
"I believe in them and what they're about and having change. I do hope they continue. I do, I think they're powerful and people are hearing the message," he said.
Iginla is the league's most recent black captain, serving as the Calgary Flames' leader from 2003-2013. He amassed 625 goals and 675 assists over 1,554 NHL games and won two "Rocket" Richards, an Art Ross, and two Olympic gold medals.
The NHL has put the finishing touches on its 24-team playoff format.
The league announced Thursday that after the best-of-five play-in rounds, the remaining four series of the playoffs will all be best-of-seven. Teams will also be reseeded after each round, instead of using the traditional bracket.
The reseeding format will ensure that the highest surviving seed will play the lowest surviving seed in the next round, and so on.
The top four seeds in each conference will be determined by the three-game round robin that teams will participate in, with regular-season points percentage acting as the tiebreaker.
The players have been pushing for both items to be implemented in the league's return in order to keep the integrity of the playoffs, according to Sportsnet's Chris Johnston.
There is still no tentative date that the NHL is aiming to return by. The league sent out a memo to teams late in May that it hopes to transition to Phase 2 of its return to play plan in early June, which would allow players to begin voluntarily working out at team facilities.
Find out the latest on COVID-19's impact on the sports world and when sports are returning by subscribing to Breaking News push notifications in the Sports and COVID-19 section.
An unnamed player on the Pittsburgh Penguins tested positive for the coronavirus but has since recovered and is feeling well, the team announced Wednesday.
"The Pittsburgh Penguins were advised today that a player tested positive for the COVID-19 virus," the team said in a statement. "The player is not in Pittsburgh and has been in isolation at his home since first experiencing symptoms. He is recovered and feeling well. Those in close contact with the player leading up to his diagnosis have been notified."
Nine players have now tested positive for the coronavirus since the NHL season was suspended March 12. All have since recovered.
The NHL plans to continue its season this summer by staging a 24-team playoff split by conference between two hub cities.
