Look at me, Wayne... - Shawn's Sense with Shawn Loughlin

Isn’t it funny how things can work out? Ten years ago, no one would have questioned his role as this country’s hockey superhero and yet, all this time and countless rounds of golf with Donald Trump later, Wayne Gretzky has lost his grip on that title. Some of it’s understandable. I mean, who hasn’t wanted to cozy up to a racist dictator who’s been credibly accused of rape, pedophilia, abuse and more? We’ve all been there. The question that awaits us Canadians is, “Who is our guy now?”

 

There was a time when it was supposed to be Mario Lemieux. Unfortunately, Super Mario’s career was cut a bit short due to his cancer diagnosis and other mounting injuries. There have been others, like Eric Lindros or Steve Yzerman, or Patrick Roy and Martin Brodeur in the net, but none have reached those heights. That is, until Sidney Crosby came along. 

 

Sid the Kid was always the heir apparent. He, with LeBron James and Bryce Harper, was a name I knew when he was a kid. These three men - in hockey, basketball and baseball, respectively - were touted as being great when they were in high school and they reached the heights we were promised they would. Crosby has scored one of the two or three most important goals in Canadian hockey history and has exemplified what it means to be Canadian on the world stage for 20 years now.

 

That last point is what’s at issue here. It’s not how many goals he’s scored or the Stanley Cups he’s won, it’s about how he’s succeeded as an ambassador for our country, playing our sport all over the world wearing the leaf.

 

Gretzky has failed us. He’s trying to work his way back into our good graces, sure, but we’re smarter than that and, furthermore, we’re fiercely protective when it comes to our love for Canada and its place in this world. So, if Wayner wants to trivialize that, that’s his business, but it’s business with which many of us will not engage. If Gretzky wants to distract us and he’s as tight with Trump as he seems, maybe he’ll bomb a country to get it done.

 

Anyway, after Gretzky’s fall from grace, who is our hockey star emeritus? It’s Crosby. He scored the golden goal in Vancouver in 2010, he captained the team in 2014 and 2026 and he has, most importantly, never lost sight of what it means to be Canadian, despite fame, fortune and success. Oh, he might not be the best Canadian player on the ice these days - that’s Connor McDavid - but his leadership is beyond reproach. He has stepped into those ambassador shoes that Gretzky used to wear.

 

Last week, Jack Hughes - the kid who scored the goal to win Olympic gold for the American men prior to roundly mocking female hockey players with his buddies (and Trump) - in a uniquely American and boorish manner, said he wanted the puck back. It had been hustled off to the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto and Hughes called that - cover your ears - bullshit.

 

He has walked back his comments, but the point remains. Of course, this kid has to make it all about himself like so many Americans are wont to do. The Hall has also pointed out that the puck was never his to keep (Americans bullying to take things that aren’t theirs? Well, I never). Crosby, asked about his 2010 golden goal puck being in the Hall of Fame, said, “I was just happy that I scored the goal. I was happy that the puck was going to the Hall of Fame. I didn’t even think about it that way.”

 

If Crosby ever passes Gretzky in a hall, we can only hope for a Canadian version of the Captain Phillips exchange in which Crosby stops Gretzky and says to him, “Look at me - I’m the captain now.” But he won’t. You know why? Wouldn’t be very Canadian, would it?