Ice Hockey's Globalization.

The participation of NHL players in the Olympics from 1998 through 2014 further expanded the sport's visibility and the NHL's value. When most people think of globalization and sport, the world's most popular game, soccer/football, or second-most widely-played sport, basketball, come to mind for their global reach in recent decades. The entrance of the Soviet Union into international ice hockey (as in other sports) after the Second World War "transformed the ways the sport was played, analyzed, and taught" - and ultimately "infused hockey with politics" (83). [Extracted from the article]