The great National Hockey League contradiction of sports, celebration and politics is upon us.
We have already begun the daily Alexander Ovechkin watch, the giant leap as he makes his way toward the career goal-scoring lead in hockey history. This all comes at a time when the league couldn’t — or wouldn’t — find a place for a Russian team in its major in-house tournament in February.
It will be Ovechkin — yay — in the days and months to come, game by game, as he chases down Wayne Gretzky for a record none of us thought was possible.
It will be Ovechkin — yay and Russia boo. All in the same convoluted sentence. All happening in a season in which Kirill Kaprizov of Minnesota and Nikita Kucherov of Tampa Bay are among the leading candidates for the Hart Trophy as the most valuable player in the NHL and the Rangers’ Igor Shesterkin signing a contract making him the highest paid goaltender in hockey history.
Russian hockey is alive and well, individually. But it’s not alive in any team concept internationally. Ovechkin has been a long-time supporter of Russian president Vladimir Putin. So has the Stanley Cup-winning goaltender, Sergei Bobrovsky, who was just named Russian athlete of the year.
We like their hockey but don’t care much for their politics or the war that continues in Ukraine. Ovechkin has had an incredible run since entering the NHL in 2005. His 868 goals are 266 more than anyone who has played during his time.
Sidney Crosby is second in goals at 602, as of Saturday. Steven Stamkos and another Russian, Evgeni Malkin, are the only others within 300 goals of Ovie’s totals.
In Gretzky’s career, he finished 186 goals ahead of Mike Gartner, 281 and 284 ahead of Mario Lemieux and Mark Messier. Ovechkin, in his time, is individually more of a dominant goal-scorer than Gretzky was in his time.
And there’s a certain discomfort that goes along with it all in current times. I can cheer for Ovechkin the hockey player, while at the same time feel disdain for his politics and those of his leader and country.
Sports and politics mix, whether we want them to or not. Rarely are they as separate as they should be or as they seem right now while Ovechkin works his way to a mark that may never be equalled.
THIS AND THAT
There is nothing wrong with Mitch Marner that a playoff series against Detroit or Buffalo or Pittsburgh wouldn’t solve. Marner has 13 goals this season, 10 of them against teams that won’t be in the playoffs. He has six playoff goals in his past 37 playoff games … Marner, having a terrific season, still ranks below Mikko Rantanen and Kucherov in scoring among right wingers … The Florida Panthers’ second line has Sam Bennett centring Matthew Tkachuk and Carter Verhaeghe. Not sure anyone would relish playing against them in a best-of-seven series in April … If Auston Matthews doesn’t play for Team USA in the 4 Nations Face-Off, the Americans will still have Jack Hughes, Jack Eichel and Dylan Larkin at centre. But it becomes a tougher matchup, depending on what Canada does with Nathan MacKinnon, Connor McDavid and Crosby as either their first three centres, or two of the top three with one of Crosby or MacKinnon going to the wing … Nearing the halfway point of the NHL season, Cale Makar leads all defencemen in scoring. But he’s also been on the ice for 37 even-strength goals-against. That’s significantly more than Victor Hedman and Gustav Forsling with 24, and Darnell Nurse, if you can believe this one, at just 15 … A Canadian network would be wise to snap up fired Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde for panel work, at least for the short term. Lalonde was sharp on TV in the playoffs between periods a few years back … Outdoor hockey games are wonderful spectacles for the city in which they take place. But as a must-see TV event, they’ve kind of lost their way. I can’t imagine there are a lot of people waiting for this Chicago-St. Louis outdoor event … When I first met Scott Arniel, he was playing left wing on a line in Winnipeg with Dale Hawerchuk and Paul MacLean. All three of them became coaches, and Arniel is now a coach of the year candidate in the NHL with the Jets … The last talk I had with Hawerchuk was when he was coaching Barrie of the OHL. He was telling me all about his underrated centre, Mark Scheifele. He said NHL scouts had him rated too low and he was going to be a good one. The great Hawerchuk, who passed away in 2020 at the age of 57, was right on Scheifele.
HEAR AND THERE
I had this conversation with a Blue Jays front office man after they traded Teoscar Hernandez to Seattle following the 2022 season. “Would you pay Teoscar $20 million a year?” I was asked. I said I would not. He said neither would the Jays. Since then, Hernandez has won a World Series in Los Angeles and has recently signed to remain with the Dodgers for the next three years at an average of $22 million a season. And the Jays remain in need of a power bat for the outfield. Which means two things: 1) Don’t expect financial advice from me; 2) don’t trust whatever financial advice you might get from the Blue Jays front office, either … A question to ask yourself, Mr. Edward Rogers. How is it the Blue Jays keep offering more money for free agents, but aren’t signing any? What does that say about the perception of the franchise around Major League Baseball and those operating it? … This has not been the best of years for shareholders of Bell or Rogers Communications, the former majority owners of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. Bell stock is down 36.5% on the year. Rogers stock is down 35%. Netflix stock, by the way, is up 85% on the year and 227% over the past two years … This was Thursday in the NBA: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 45 points for Oklahoma City and teammate Lu Dort had 13 against Indiana. Meanwhile, Andrew Nembhard and Ben Mathurin combined for 41 for the Pacers. That’s 99 points scored by four Canadians in the same game. Not sure that’s ever happened before … Some things in life don’t make sense: The Raptors are a better three-point shooting team on the road than the 24-5 first-place Thunder is … Simon Benoit is hardly a sexy name among NHL defencemen, but few are on the ice as much as he is while being scored upon so infrequently.
SCENE AND HEARD
My favourite sporting things of 2024, in no particular order: The Paris Olympics; Paris itself; Roland Garros Stadium; everything that is Summer McIntosh; the American League Championship Series; the Patrick Mahomes comeback in the Super Bowl; the Stanley Cup final, never mind the result; Aaron Judge, Shohei Ohtani and Vladdy Guerrero Jr.; the unlikely Argos; Matthews’ almost 70-goal season; Andre De Grasse and his 100-metre teammates in the 4 x100 relay at the Olympics; Team USA vs. Serbia in men’s basketball, the greatest game I’ve ever seen; Steph Curry … Terrible time to be a sports fan in Chicago. The Bears stink. The Blackhawks stink. The White Sox stink. The Bulls aren’t any good. Not much to care about in one of the great sporting towns in America … It’s wonderful for the hammer thrower Ethan Katzberg to be named The Canadian Press male athlete of the year. But I don’t quite understand how you can compare a hammer thrower — a singular event in athletics with a very small competitive field — with an NBA star such as Gilgeous-Alexander, who plays 82 games, plus playoffs. Or McDavid or MacKinnon, who played more than 100 NHL games in the calendar year … The challenge for Leafs coach Craig Berube in the second half of the NHL season: Finding the right defensive partner for Morgan Rielly. He hasn’t had the right partner since Ron Hainsey was a Leaf … First baseman Pete Alonso, a good player, not a great one, seems to be pricing himself out of the free-agent market in baseball. Even the high-priced Mets seem to be willing to walk away from Alonso … Brendan Shanahan takes a lot of heat for his time running the Leafs, but consider this: Steve Yzerman is six years in as GM in Detroit, nowhere near the playoffs; Buffalo hasn’t made the playoffs in a lifetime. Shanahan missed the playoffs once, hasn’t missed since drafting Matthews … Don’t know where Darko Rajakovic rates as an all-time coach — probably near the bottom — but his tantrum in Memphis the other night is an all-time unforgettable Raptors moment … So many tough questions this time of year. What presents to keep, which to return, which games to watch when you’re not screaming about junior hockey. Are you watching the Bad Boy Mowers Pinstripe Bowl or the Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl? … And good luck to all those playing fantasy football championship games on Sunday. I started the wrong kicker two weeks ago. Cost me and my partner a title shot.
tap here to see other videos from our team.
AND ANOTHER THING
There are four sound candidates for MVP in the NFL, although if you watch enough television these days, you would think there is only one: Josh Allen. It’s a quarterback’s job to produce wins and Patrick Mahomes and Kansas City have the most in the league. Two-time MVP Lamar Jackson has combined yardage of 4,807 passing and rushing in Baltimore, which blows everyone else away. The giant Allen is unstoppable, having run for 11 touchdowns and passed for 3,549 yards with the Bills. And Saquon Barkley is in contention for all-time numbers as a running back, leading the Philadelphia Eagles. In any given year, any one of the four could, or should, be MVP. This year it will come down to Allen or Jackson, and a sound case could be made right now for either quarterback … It drives me a little batty when I see Tkachuk or Steelers wide receiver George Pickens dangling or chewing on their mouthguard, rather than keeping it where it should be. We try to convince kids about the necessity of mouthguard usage. This kind of example doesn’t help … Wonder how many owners in sports are paying attention to what the Suns are doing in Phoenix, charging $2 at concession stands for water, soda, hotdogs, and popcorn? A small popcorn at Cineplex is $9 now. And you wonder why people don’t go to movies anymore … It’s highly possible that Cody Bellinger will be batting next to Giancarlo Stanton in the Yankees batting order this coming season. Bellinger, by the way, is married to Stanton’s old girlfriend … The NBA was excited to have five million people watching games on Christmas Day on television, especially those up against NFL games on Netflix for the first time. But follow me here for a second: The U.S. is 10 times the size of Canada. A five-million-person audience in the U.S. is about half a million Canadians. By my translation, the NBA audience in the U.S. at Christmas is basically equal to the average CFL audience in Canada throughout the season … Happy birthday to Ray Bourque (64), Myles Garrett (29), Bill Lee (78), George Parros (45), Julio Rodriguez (24), Sean Payton (61) Theo Epstein (51), Adam Vinatieri (52) and B.J. Ryan (49) … And hey, whatever became of Jonathan Toews?
twitter.com/simmonssteve