It's over-dramatic and not that serious, but not necessarily wrong.
At the same time, nobody else wants it. Even my fellow NHL fans I talk a lot of hockey with in the States simply don't care, they don't even know USA is playing for Gold today.
Hockey Canada is more or less in charge of international hockey. The World Under-17 Challenge is a Hockey Canada event (not IIHF), the Gretzky-Hlinka Tournament is a Hockey Canada event (not IIHF, although it's a Czechoslovakian legacy from when it started, so it's "technically" a collaborative effort with Czech and Slovak federations), the World Junior A Challenge is a Hockey Canada event (not IIHF).
That leaves the IIHF Under-18 (where Canada makes sure loudly that everyone knows they don't care about it), the IIHF Under-20 (not a Hockey Canada event but may as well be), the IIHF World Championship and the Olympics.
To be honest, Hockey Canada should use its influence to get Russia back in (which it wants, Canada-Russia is a big draw whether Russia is good or bad). Back in the day, if countries took issue with another country, they boycotted themselves (Western countries at Moscow Olympics, Canada from IIHF due to shamateurs). To me, if a country like Finland refuses to play against Russia, they can forfeit if their principles are so strong. I'd have a lot more respect for that rather than see them be rewarded with a Bronze Medal because they artificially took away a team that might beat them. If Canada pressed on the IIHF hard enough, they could likely end that ban. It's gone on long enough. Across generations, Canada-Russia, USA-Russia and Canada-USA games are always far more interesting than other matchups.
