It’s historically stoked lots of xenophobia, especially during the red scare w/ the Soviet Red Army teams. A large number of hockey fans, especially older ones, haven’t been able to let go of their “good ol’ Canadian boy” prejudices, not helped by dinosaurs like Don Cherry

I am so happy I grew up with a dad that liked the Soviet teams lol... honestly without that, I don't know how cool he'd have been with buying his kid stuff with the hammer and sickle at 15, which then led to me actually reading the communist manifesto etc over the years since.

Who knows how things would have turned out for me if my dad wasn't a contrarian hipster back in the day!