Was Anybody Else Cheering for Russia a Little?

Are Canadians really the noble, humble hockey lovers we pretend to be? Sadly, nyet.

A few of us in The Mark Newsroom were relieved to read this column by the National Post’s Chris Selley, because it let us know that we were not the only ones who felt a hint of pleasure at watching the Canadian hockey team's spectacular collapse against the Russians in the gold medal game of the World Juniors Wednesday night. “Don’t get me wrong,” says Selley, “I cheer as enthusiastically as anyone for Canadian hockey, including this year’s under-20 squad, but I also cheer when Canadian myths explode in people’s faces.” According to Selley, Russia’s hard-won comeback on Wednesday debunked the “obnoxious” myth of the noble Canadian hockey player who “will do things no other player of lesser nationality will do to win,” and the “unbelievably po-faced and jingoistic coverage” of the tournament also skewered the idea that Canada is an inherently humble nation incapable of gaudy American-style patriotism. “If Canadians didn’t have a strong tendency to behave as the world’s hypocritical, hectoring nannies in the non-sporting arena, this sort of thing wouldn’t really be a problem,” writes Selley. “But we do, and it is.” Ouch.

Proof of Selley’s point is this unbelievably self-important Globe and Mail editorial. “We just can never be good enough – in this one thing – to satisfy ourselves,” beam the editors, who blame Wednesday’s loss not on any skill or determination on the part of Russian players, but on the fact that the “adrenal surge and mental focus” caused by “the deep conviction within each [Canadian] player that we Own the Ice” suddenly ran out. Aside from this editorial being a sorry excuse for sports coverage, it’s further evidence of the Globe editors bizarre compulsion to pronounce on relatively minor things like hockey games and pop albums as though they were matters of national importance, all while simultaneously maintaining their humourless “we are Canada’s paper of record” pompousness. We wish they’d cut it out.