It Went Nowhere

Bob Hartley is fairly well-known in NHL circles thanks to five seasons in Colorado, five seasons in Atlanta, and five seasons in Calgary. He spent time in Zurich in 2011-12 where he led Zurich SC to a Swiss League Championship, and he does have a Stanley Cup to his name. It's no surprise that he found employment in the KHL after no NHL team called him once he was relieved of duties in Calgary in 2015-16, and Hartley spent his first season in Russia as the head coach of Avangard Omsk. It would be in Omsk where he led the Avangard squad to a Gagarin Cup championship series, but things went a little off the rails when RUSADA dropped by for drug-testing.

If we jump back to the April 28 article written here on HBIC, the details included Hartley and the Avangard Omsk team doctor preventing RUSADA from running drug tests on selected players, and that the player who was chosen by RUSADA snuck away before being tested. If Hartley and the others named in this RUSADA report were found to be guilty, the IIHF suspension could be up to four years in length and would be upheld by the KHL. So yeah, it's a little serious.

Today, however, it was revealed that RUSADA had dropped the charges against Hartley, team doctor Dmitry Batushenko, and forward Denis Zernov after they completed their investigation into the incident with Avangard Omsk. While there were no details about what was found or not found in this investigation in the Sports.ru report linked above, it seems that of which Hartley and his colleagues were accused didn't happen. If you're a fan of Avangard Omsk, this is good news after the success that Omsk had under Hartley this past season.

Deputy Director General of RUSADA Margarita Pagnocca did make a statement that I loosely translated into English. Please note that the following is not a direct translation of the statement made.

"RUSADA has made the decision to drop the charges on head coach of Omsk Avangard Hartley and head of the medical team Batushenko who were charged with violating the anti-doping rules after the club and the Federation of hockey of Russia was notified by an official letter. However, the offensive attitude of the coach and doctor to the doping officers should not go unpunished. RUSADA recommends that the club and the ice hockey Federation of Russia to bear against Hartley and Batushenko disciplinary measures," Pagnocca stated.

"The incident highlighted the fact that employees of Avangard have certain gaps in knowledge of anti-doping rules. In particular, they do not know the details of how to undergo the procedure of notification to the athlete under doping control."

I'll give credit to Pagnocca for calling out the behaviour of Hartley and Batushenko if they showed an "offensive attitude" towards the RUSADA officials, but suspending these two men for four years over that seems a little harsh. I also will credit Pagnocca for calling out the Avangard team for not properly informing the team on anti-doping rules, but doesn't it seem like this entirely incident could have been totally avoided if cooler heads had prevailed?

In any case, Hartley won't be suspended for four years and can continue working for Omsk in the KHL and for the Latvian national team on the international stage. Being labeled as an "international doping cheat" wouldn't have looked good on his resumé if he ever needs to apply for another job.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!