I was wandering between my computer and television, watching the Canadians win against Team Russia in a rather dramatic fashion. Team Canada this year was clearly one of the most skilled and well matched squads ever (a credit to both the players and the bench staff), but I also got the feeling that many of their opponents were not playing at anything close to the same level. And, that thought led me to wonder how many good hockey players were not and never will play for Team Russia because they are conscripts dying in Chechnya, without the politcal or economic means to avoid the draft.

There might not actually be that many, but I suspect no one will ever really know. I must say though that it felt strange to read (courtesy of John “Global Guerrillas” Robb) the day after that several more Russian soldiers just died. I’m not sure why exactly this occured to me during a hockey game, but it did.