TORONTO – One of the concerns for “Team Europe” in the 2016 World Cup of Hockey is identity. So I tried to help give them one.

“Can you have a pirate flag as the logo on the World Cup European team jerseys?” I asked Anze Kopitar, the Slovenian-born star center for the Los Angeles Kings. “A skull and crossbones? Kings colors, of course. But the logo is a pirate flag.”

The roster is a potpourri of hockey nations that aren’t Sweden, Finland, Russia or the Czech Republic. They don’t have tradition. They don’t have an anthem. But as I suggested, they should have a flag. A pirate flag.

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“Because you’re, like, a team without a nation. You’re invading this tournament and trying to topple the establishment as this rogue element.”

“OK," said Kopitar, nodding.

“So can you make that happen?”

Said Kopitar: “Why would you ask me that? What control do I have over the jerseys?”

“Well,” I said, “we’ve been calling it Team Kopitar since it was announced. If you have any sway …”

“OK,” he said, smiling. “I’ll do my best.”

***

Truthfully, the Kings star has been over that “Team Kopitar” stuff for months.

When the 2016 World Cup of Hockey format was announced, with a “Young Stars” team and a “Team Europe” filling out the eight-team field, Kopitar became the focus as a player who wouldn’t be in the tournament were it not for this grab-bag of European NHL stars.

He would roll his eyes a bit when asked the same questions about “Team Kopitar” and the locker room dynamics between rival nations. But it was clear that, for him, getting a chance to play in the World Cup and represent Slovenia trumped the awkward inconvenience of having a hodgepodge team, like that table at the wedding with the childhood friend sitting with the work acquaintance sitting with mom’s second cousin.

“For selfish reasons now, it would be cool to be part of that,” he said back in January. “There are a lot of good players coming from Switzerland and Slovakia.”

Both of those countries could have made a case for inclusion in a World Cup tournament, if this World Cup tournament wasn’t simply a brand extension for the National Hockey League and international players were invited en masse to participate.

In Switzerland’s case, they’ve been a competitive Olympic team for some time and jumped up to win silver at the 2013 IIHF world championships. While the national team’s roster only boasts about a half-dozen established NHL players, the thought that Switzerland couldn’t be counted among the eight hockey powers internationally is insulting to Swiss players.

"I don't like it at all. Not one thing about it. It's a nations tournament. You love playing for your country,” said defenseman Mark Streit back in January.

View photos PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC - MAY 05: Roman Josi (R) of Switzerland and Yannic Seidenberg (L) of Germany battle for the puck during the IIHF World Championship group A match between Switzerland and Germany at o2 Arena on May 5, 2015 in Prague, Czech Republic. (Photo by Martin Rose/Getty Images) More

Roman Josi, the Swiss defenseman for the Nashville Predators, felt that his country earned their inclusion in the tournament.

“I really feel like Swiss hockey made a good step forward in the last few years. We played some good international tournaments, did well at the Olympics too. It’s disappointing that Switzerland can’t be there as a nation,” he said. “But it’s the World Cup. You play against the best players in the world. It would be an honor to be on that team.”

The primary concern for Switzerland and Slovakia is how this all plays back home. The players talk about having been inspired by seeing their forefathers compete against the world’s best in international tournaments; they fear that by being placed on “Team Europe,” young players back home won’t feel the same sense of pride.

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