Officials worry China’s team not ready

International hockey officials are hoping to avoid a Humiliation On Ice when the Chinese men’s national team debuts at the Beijing Winter Olympics.

They begged the NHL to send players to the Games in China, but now they are worried that the home team might not even be able to score a goal.

The host nation automatically qualifies for every sport at the Olympics, but the Chinese men’s lineup — with a handful of naturalized Americans and Canadians — will face off against virtual NHL all-star teams from Canada and the United States in the first round. The International Ice Hockey Federation fears historic blowouts could hurt Olymweek pic hockey’s image, especially after persuading the NHL to take a two-week break to allow the world’s top players to compete.

To figure out how it might all go down, the IIHF is holding an unusual test next week in Moscow, where players on the Chinese team will play against Russian professionals and attempt to be competitive.

Ice hockey is not a popular sport in China, with no pro or significant amateur league. After China won the right to host the Games, an academy was set up to nurture young talent, and Chinese officials went around the world looking for players with Chinese ancestry — or who were willing to naturalize there — who could join the team.

It’s unclear who will grade this test — or how. The IIHF said last

it will not remove China from the tournament — it does not have the unilateral authority to do that — and it would be up to the Chinese government to pull the plug.

That would be a humiliating step: A host country’s team has never been withdrawn from the modern-day Olympics for solely performance-related reasons, according to Olympic historian Bill Mallon.

There is good reason it is even being contemplated: the Beijingbased Kontinental Hockey League team Kunlun Red Star — which has been used as something of a proxy for the Chinese national team to get experience in a professional league has lost 20 of its 26 KHL games this season and been outscored 96-57 in the process.