O O Ø O O O O
Showtime!
First and foremost, Happy New Year! Here’s hoping you get everything you deserve this year.
There’s been a lot of talk on the sports channels and around the water cooler about the Russians showboating against the Americans in the World Junior Championships. The Russians were the better team in that game, and they looked it. They deserved the win, and it was a convincing victory from a team filled with fast skaters, solid hitters, and great playmakers. Unfortunately, they’re also a team of hackers, slashers, holders, and divers. They’re a tremendously skilled team who just happens to be hated by everyone because they play like an NHL team in the Eastern Conference.
At the end of the game, the best players on the Russian team got a couple of empty net goals to seal the deal. They decided to let the Americans know how good they were, and how highly they thought of their own play in front of the American bench. (They later claimed they forgot where they were.) Pretty much everything I’ve seen and heard on the subject has been along the lines of “it’s not professional” or “it’s disrespectful to the Americans/the game.”
That’s a load bigger than a month’s effort from my nine-week old nephew. I’m sorry the Americans lost to the Russians, because I would have loved to have seen Canada face them in the finals. I’m sorry people get upset when a team that is winning convincingly rub it in a little. I’m really sorry everyone seems to have forgotten where that kind of behaviour comes from.
Look at two of the three biggest professional leagues in the US, the NFL and the NBA. After almost every play, no matter how mundane, someone is posing, yipping into the camera, or getting in the face of an opponent while extolling their virtues on the playing field/court. Heck, some people have turned it into an artform, and—love them or hate them—everyone is watching to see what they do next.
Not only is this kind of behaviour tolerated, it’s expected and loved, provided it’s by someone on the home team. The majority of people love these antics, and a lot of the folks in the game do, too. I’m not one of those people, but I’m definitely in the minority.
Some of the same people complaining about the Russians’ antics were playing the part of hypocrite tonight. As the Canadians were taking the Russians apart piece by piece, you could see them yammering at every faceoff, after every play, and whenever they got near each other. When Ovechkin was hurt and the Canadians were giving shots to the injured shoulder, it was okay. Sportsmanship and respect for the game was suspended when it worked in the Canadians’ favour. Funny that.
I think the Russians did what they thought people expected of them. Watching any sports broadcast these days, I can’t say I blame them. They see that kind of behaviour all the time on television in the pro leagues, and to a lesser extent the amateur leagues as well. They just made the mistake of not doing it on home ice, where they could get away with it.
Kev Needham
January 4, 2005
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