SOCHI, RUSSIA—The optics are, to say the least, not ideal.

Of the four on-ice officials assigned to work Sunday’s Olympic gold-medal game between Sweden and Canada, three are Canadian-born.

When this peculiarity was brought to the attention of the hockey world this weekend, it didn’t pass without comment. Peter Forsberg, the penalty-shootout hero of Sweden’s 1994 gold-medal victory over Canada at the Lillehammer Olympics, reportedly texted a Swedish newspaper.

“What a f---ing joke!” was Forsberg’s published two cents.

Perhaps it doesn’t help that the only gold-medal official who can’t claim Canada as his homeland — U.S.-born referee Brad Meier — lives in Calgary. Meier was slated to be on the ice for the gold-medal climax along with fellow referee Kelly Sutherland of Richmond, B.C. The assigned linesmen are Derek Amell of Port Colborne, Ont., and Greg Devorski of Guelph.

All four men make their living presiding over NHL games.

A spokesman for the IIHF, which oversees the Olympic tournament, said medal-round officials are chosen based on criteria that includes their experience in important games as well as their performance here. Nationality, the IIHF insisted, is not a factor in the selection process.

For all of Forsberg’s outrage, the current members of the Swedish team appeared unperturbed.

“I don’t care,” said Par Marts, the Swedish coach. “I hope (the officials) do their job. That’s all I can focus on. I can’t change it. No problem with that.”

Swedish captain Niklas Kronwall, a defenceman for the Detroit Red Wings, said he doesn’t think the citizenship of the zebras will give Canada an advantage.

“(People) make a bigger deal out of it than it has to be,” Kronwall told reporters. “We’re all used to NHL referees at this level. I think it’s the right decision.”

Still, if it’s the right decision, it does shed a harsh light on hockey’s small, small world. This wouldn’t happen in, say, the FIFA World Cup, where regulations prohibit officials from calling games involving their home nation or even their home nation’s group.

The problem is that hockey doesn’t possess a pool of international referees deep enough to maintain such a broad-based system. Since the NHL began coming to the Olympics in 1998, the league and its players have insisted on the importance of having the world’s best officials — i.e. NHL officials — working key best-on-best games, no matter that the NHL’s officiating staff is entirely of North American origin.

The only European who has refereed NHL games, Marcus Vinnerborg of Sweden, was also a referee here; he was assigned to Canada’s 3-1 win over Norway in the preliminary round. Alas, to the dismay of some Swedish voices, Vinneborg — who left his NHL pursuit in 2012 to return home to the Swedish league — didn’t make the medal-round cut.

Saturday’s bronze-medal game, won 5-0 by Finland over the U.S., was called by one U.S. referee — NHLer Tim Peel — and one Russian one, Konstantin Olenin of the KHL. The linesmen were Canada’s Chris Carlson, he of the Western Hockey League, and Belarus’s Ivan Dedioulia.

Stephen Walkom, the NHL’s director of officials, said in an email statement that the system of referee selection is merit based. Walkom pointed out that when Sweden won the gold medal at the 2006 Olympics, the game was refereed by an NHLer — Canada’s Paul Devorski, older brother of Greg, this in the one-referee era in a game that didn’t include Canada.

Walkom’s statement continued: “This year NHL officials have been selected (for the gold-medal game), which is a testament to their work on the ice, not to the country they are from.”

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This is where a progressive would point out that it’d be in the international game’s interest to see referees and linesmen from countries other than Canada and the U.S. be given opportunities to develop into NHLers. Former NHL referee Paul Stewart has argued that Vinnerborg, for one, didn’t receive enough support in his failed push to establish himself as an NHL regular.

The idea that Canada and the U.S. are the only viable sources for reliable officials is ludicrous. Opportunity, not ability, is clearly the issue. And optics are important.

As it is, Forsberg, now an executive in the Swedish Elite League, told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that the deployment of an onslaught of Canadian officials amounts to “comedy at its highest level.” Perhaps he’ll find it even funnier that Sunday’s standby referee, in case of injury or illness, is also Canadian — Kevin Pollock of Kincardine, Ont.

Forsberg may or may not be comforted to know that the video goal judge is Swiss.

Mind you, if the perception of bias is everything, the motivation for blowing a whistle should also be considered. Don Cherry, the CBC icon, sounded nearly as dismayed as Forsberg when he spoke about the gold-medal officiating situation, but for a different reason.

Cherry, interviewed while he watched Canada practice in advance of the big game, said it’s his experience that Canadian referees working a Team Canada game “bend over backwards” to make a show of their impartiality.

“It’s the biggest break (the Swedes) could have got,” said Cherry. “I guarantee you the first penalty (Sutherland) calls will be against a Canadian. Watch and see. And I’m never wrong.”

Still, Cherry was sticking by his pre-tournament prediction, which included a Canada-Sweden final.

“Canada wins,” said Cherry.

And not thanks to a friendly whistle.