I hope by now it’s clear that I really hate the Province. I have issues with the media in general, but the Province doesn’t even pretend to have a copy editor on staff.
So it’s never surprising when, every once in a while, this “newspaper” comes out with an “article” that’s a little… strange. This week, it’s from Ed Willes, who apparently finds “Canada’s hockey obsession […] grating“. He takes umbrage with the following:
- “TSN wrapping itself in the Maple Leaf again”
- “privileged teenagers mewling about the adversity they had to overcome”
- the money that Hockey Canada spends for the WJC
- Team Canada’s travelling chef
- Team Canada’s defense-first strategy
- What he calls “our sense of entitlement”
I have no idea what #1 even means, but I find this kind of ironic coming from a man who’s made his career on writing about hockey. That’s not to say that he’s not allowed to get sick of something he writes about—God knows I want to shoot myself after reading the 20th straight article on manuscript transmission—but I find his points to be a little… bitchy.
So what if guys like Doughty and Tavares and Legein are privileged? For one, I don’t see a report of their parents’ income (though, let’s face it—hockey’s expensive, but I’m sure their parents didn’t sacrifice food to pay for their skating lessons), but let’s just assume for a minute that these guys had a hell of a better life than Justin Pogge. It doesn’t mean that money is the only obstacle to reaching your goal. Like maybe you could be a profound jackass like Downie. Cutting down their accomplishment because their families could afford to send their kids to hockey is a little petty.
Would Willes rather that Hockey Canada work with a budget of $500 and feed the players instant noodles and Gatorade, just so they can really “earn it”? Or maybe we can ice 6 forwards and forget the D and G all together, just for fun.
However, in spite of what appears to be Willes’ (or probably the Province‘s) predictable attempt to incite an emotional divide—HOW DARE CANADIANS OBSESS OVER THIS GAME, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU, DON’T YOU KNOW THERE ARE SOME CHEFS WHO ARE UNEMPLOYED—he manages to make a point, which is kind of like uncovering the secret treasure when all you were trying to do was shoot yourself in the foot. Just what is it with “our sense of entitlement” about hockey?
Or to soften that up, why is the attitude bring home gold or don’t come home at all?
If Canada played for the bronze rather than the gold, what would that game be like? Would they have even tried? A few years ago, Finland was practically shitting itself over winning either bronze or silver in a WC. Not here.
It’s good to reach for the top, but the second podium isn’t a disgrace.
I’m not condemning or praising this attitude. I share it, too. I’ll be disappointed if Canada can’t come up with a gold in 2010. I just think it’s interesting. Where does this come from? Is it an obsession with being the first nation of hockey? If you lace up for Canada, you lace up for Canada. We’ve practically strangled the game with such political and cultural significance that anything less than total success is a total failure.
Where did this all begin? How does a game become a social and political pulse? There are a lot of things that escape you as a kid, but it’s like things have just snowballed since Salt Lake in 2002 and hockey is more central than ever. Is Canada just hardwired for this, or is it something else?
To sum: Where’s the chicken, and where’s the egg?
