Dem
47
GOP
53
Canada has been in the news quite a lot, recently. There's the normal stuff that should be in the news, like the declining popularity of the Justin Trudeau administration, and the upcoming election that will choose his replacement as prime minister. And then there is all the 51st state nonsense, which has produced many stories about how irritated the Canadians are, and many (dumb) stories about what would happen if Canada actually was annexed by the U.S.
As chance would have it, this rocky time in U.S.-Canada relations coincides with "All Star" season for two of the four major North American sports leagues, the NBA and the NHL. For those readers who do not follow sports (which is a lot of the readership), pretty much all of the sports leagues have had trouble maintaining interest in their All-Star games, which are supposed to be a major showcase for the leagues and their best athletes. There are numerous reasons for this, but the biggest is that the athletes (and their team ownership, and often their fans) aren't particularly enthusiastic about risking injury in what is, in the end, an exhibition contest. So, they have tended to play at something less than full effort in recent years. The NFL eventually canceled its All-Star game outright, while the NBA and NHL have tried to find ways to spice things up, and regain some of the competitiveness seen in the past.
The NBA's latest round of experimentation, which unfolded last weekend, did not work out so well. On the other hand, the NHL appears to have hit the jackpot. Instead of playing one game with the league's best players, the All Stars were instead divided into four teams, each representing a hockey-playing nation: the U.S., Canada, Sweden, and Finland. The teams played a round-robin tournament and the two teams that advanced to the title game, held last night, were, as you can surely guess, the U.S. and Canada.
The NHL knows, full well, that once you make a player into a representative of their nation, that ups the ante. However, when this plan was put into motion many months ago, the league had no idea the sort of backdrop Donald Trump would create with his rhetoric and his tariffs. There's already a rivalry between the U.S. and Canadian national hockey programs, and all the political stuff just upped the ante. And although Canada is a hockey powerhouse, the imbalance in military power gave last night's matchup a definite David and Goliath feel.
Further, just in case the various news reports swirling around the tournament were not enough, various actors involved made absolutely certain to inject politics into the thing. Canadian fans, for their part, booed during the playing of the U.S. national anthem. This infuriated several of the very Trumpy players on the American team, particularly brothers Brady and Matthew Tkachuk. So, in the first U.S.-Canada matchup of the tournament (which happened last Saturday), the Americans started 3 different fights... in the first 9 seconds of the game. In case it wasn't obvious, the Tkachuks later confirmed that the fights were pre-planned.
NHL Hall of Famer Bill Guerin, who is GM of the American team, and who is also very Trumpy, strongly encouraged the President to be a part of the championship game. Guerin, knowing that Trump rarely eschews an opportunity to engage in a little jingoism, actually hoped that The Donald might attend in person. Instead, Trump addressed the team via phone before the game, and also posted this message to his one-man social media platform:
I'll be calling our GREAT American Hockey Team this morning to spur them on towards victory tonight against Canada, which with FAR LOWER TAXES AND MUCH STRONGER SECURITY, will someday, maybe soon, become our cherished, and very important, Fifty First State. I will be speaking before the Governors tonight in D.C., and will sadly, therefore, be unable to attend. But we will all be watching, and if Governor Trudeau would like to join us, he would be most welcome. Good luck to everybody, and have a GREAT game tonight. So exciting! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP
Nobody who follows sports objects to a little good-natured rivalry and/or ribbing. Indeed, for games like these, it's somewhat customary for the respective leaders to place a little bet involving local products. So, if Trump wanted to bet a case of Florida oranges on the Americans, against a case of maple syrup from Trudeau, then that would be fine and dandy. But this kind of garbage? Can't he EVER show even a tiny modicum of class?
As a result of all of this, pretty much every person in Canada was pulling hard for their team. And so were a fair number of Americans. The game itself was excellent, for those who like the sport. The Canadians scored first, then the U.S. tied it, then the U.S. took the lead, then the Canadians tied it. With the score even at 2-2 at the end of regulation, that meant sudden-death overtime. The overtime lasted for 8:18, until the U.S. forgot to defend Connor McDavid, the best hockey player in the world, and McDavid stuffed one into the net for the win.
Regardless of which team a person might have been rooting for, it would be hard not to appreciate how much this meant to the Canadians. Many in the audience were in tears. Some of the players were clearly bleary-eyed, too, while all of them were clearly thrilled to have defended their nation's honor. Team Canada also put on a lesson in how to win with class, shaking hands with the Americans, and then each accepting a first-place medal with heads bowed and with no showboating. We can think of at least one person who could learn a little something from that.
Anyhow, congratulations to Team Canada, eh, and have a good weekend, all! (Z)