It’s time for more info about your favorite topic of the year – anthems! The NHL released a statement regarding the various anthems which will be played during the World Cup of Hockey. While they refrained from touching on what will happen if someone protests a given anthem, they did provide some answers about the anthems for Team North America and Team Europe.
In summary, Team North America will have the anthems of the United States and Canada before their games. Team Europe has decided that out of respect to the eight countries they represent, an artificial anthem wouldn’t be appropriate so they won’t be using one.
Who's ready for World Cup anthem protocols?! pic.twitter.com/2wJY7YGOVL
— James Mirtle (@mirtle) September 7, 2016
You may recall that a new anthem for Team Europe was being created featuring instrumentals, but that idea has apparently been scrapped due to player feedback. The idea wasn’t a bad one in theory, but in practice it’d be kind of strange to have an artificial anthem represent a team.
Hopefully this concludes any and all anthem talk for the rest of the World Cup of Hockey and for the 2016-17 season. That probably won’t be the case, but at least it has given hockey fans something to talk about until the season actually starts.
