Wayne Gretzky doubles down with powerful statement to sanction Russian hockey.

Arguably the biggest name in the sport of hockey ruffled a few feathers over the weekend when he made some strong comments about the sanctions he feels need to be taken against Russian hockey, and in spite of the fact that he has received some backlash over those comments there is absolutely no indication that The Great One will be backing down.

On Monday National Hockey League legend Wayne Gretzky doubled down on the comments he made, specifically as it pertains to the upcoming World Junior Championship to be held in Alberta, Canada, and once again called for Russia to be expelled from the event entirely. Speaking on Sportsnet 590 The Fan radio, Gretzky left no doubt about the fact that he felt anything else would be a slap in the face to Canadian families, many of whom have roots in the country of Ukraine.

Gretzky began by speaking about just how much the people of Ukraine are intertwined with the country of Canada.

"People don't know this or realize it, but the country of Canada other than I believe Russia and the Ukraine have the most Ukranians that live in another country. I believe there is close to 2 million Ukrainians that live here in Canada," said Gretzky on Monday morning. "Tons of Ukranians migrated to the province of Alberta and the city of Edmonton and it makes up a big fabric of how wonderful the people are in that city. For people who have never been out there the nickname for Edmonton is Edmonchuck or The Chuck, so I just couldn't relate to how we were gonna welcome a country that's at war to a city that has tons of Ukrainian family members that are still living in the Ukraine, probably lots of friends, probably sick to their stomachs about this."

Gretzky also pushed back against those who have attempted to suggest that this would only serve to punish Russian kids who have no power to influence the decisions of their government.

"I got some push back from people that said 'You know why punish the Russian kids?' It's not about punishing the Russian kids, what about the Ukrainian kids that are being killed daily? The Ukranian kids who are 12 and 14 years old and going to war. So I don't want anybody to be punished I just think it makes common sense that we shouldn't compete against this country right now while they are at war against an innocent country."

Strong words from The Great One indeed.