Hockey skates into the Trump vacuum

Open this photo in gallery: Team USA fans cheer after their team defeated Canada in a 4 Nations Face-Off hockey game in Montreal, on Feb. 15.Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press

It was Bobby Orr who came out from under cover first. Back during the 2020 U.S. election cycle, Orr – a lovely man who’d spent a lot of years saying only nice things – bought an ad in his local newspaper to endorse Donald Trump. In it, he referred to Trump as “the kind of teammate I want.”

It was odd that Orr, a son of Parry Sound, Ont., was doing what no American athlete would have dreamt of doing at the time.

Then Wayne Gretzky essentially moved into Mar-a-Lago. Apparently, no children’s birthday celebration or pool party can pass at Trump’s Florida residence without pictures of Gretzky coming out of it. He did wait until Trump had won the second time to start wearing the hat.

Gretzky’s a rich guy who loves his golf, so this isn’t completely out of far right field. He’s also from Brantford, Ont., and the last time people from those parts liked a strongman the circus was in town.

Still, these were just soundings. Nothing from anyone in an official capacity. Then Team USA general manager Bill Guerin gave the secret handshake out in public.

“We would love it if President Trump was in attendance [at Thursday’s USA-Canada game],” Guerin told Fox News on Monday. “We got a room full of proud American players, coaches and staff.”

It wasn’t that Guerin said it. It was the way he did. The way he hammered the word ‘love’ and then paused for a second.

Sports world’s eyes are on 4 Nations Face-Off final as Canada-U.S. rivalry spills onto the ice

Hockey – it’s a little Trumpy. Maybe more than a little. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It’s a free country. For now.

There’s been a lot of talk about the impact Saturday’s USA-Canada game has had on the sport. In that same interview, Guerin said, “that might’ve been the highest level of hockey ever played.” But the real shift here is political. Hockey just broke for the president.

I don’t believe that any professional athlete who has a vote hasn’t ticked Trump’s name three times and counting. Whatever they say in public, their biggest consideration is tax implications.

But most have avoided declaring themselves. That created a vacuum. Hockey has begun moving into it over the last five days.

A lot of little things had to happen at once for this to come about. The timing of the 4 Nations Face-Off was so good, you half-suspect some promotions savant planned it this way.

It started shortly after the inauguration, but not right in the thicket of early change. There was enough of a lapse between Trump’s ha-ha-we-will-annex-you-just-kidding-ha-ha bit that Canadians had a chance to get angry. That gave them a little practice at booing the anthem during NHL and NBA games so that everybody understood how it worked and what was expected.

But had weeks passed, the scolds of the Canadian political and media classes would have convinced people that booing does no good. They’re trying that now, but it’s too late. America has noticed that we don’t like them any more.

Then people began to compare the inchoate violence of Canada-USA versus the chill vibes of NBA all-star weekend and hockey won that comparison by a landslide. Cool is out. Jingoism is in.

Hockey was given a choice – is it Canadian (i.e. is it for the way things have worked since most of us have been alive) or is it American (i.e. unalloyed chaos)?

Everyone picked Door No. 2, even the Canadian players. The likes of Brad Marchand have been more vocal than actual Americans on why anthem booing is bad. That’s an opinion, but it’s also a choice.

Canada and the U.S. take pressure, history into 4 Nations final

As it draws to a close, the 4 Nations Face-Off has morphed from hockey tournament into a showcase for America’s newly rampant id. The Americans don’t start fights (though they did), they finish them (though they didn’t). Why else do you think Bill Guerin was on Fox News?

In this new scenario, Canada is cast as the bully. We weren’t nice to our visitors. And over what? Some jobs? Come on. Don’t be like that. Just give up and there will be plenty of jobs.

Usually, the sporting villain is played by Russia, but it can’t do it because it’s America’s new best friend. If Hollywood made Rocky IV again, Ivan Drago would be from Winnipeg.

None of this makes any sense until you consider it from the perspective of hockey’s inferiority complex.

It has spent decades trying to convince Americans to care. The game has plenty of U.S. markets, but it’s the number six or seven draw in some of them.

When America wanted fighting, hockey gave it so much fighting they needed to keep multiple ambulances on hand at games. Then it didn’t want fighting, and hockey went that way instead. Now it wants fighting again, so Team USA gives it to them. It’s a bit embarrassing, all this too’ing and fro’ing trying to convince people you matter.

But right now, the state is looking to bring on some culture workers to embody the renewed get’er-done spirit of ‘Murica. Basketball took a pass. Nobody watches baseball any more. Football’s over. But whoa, whoa, whoa, here comes hockey.

“We are the luckiest people in the world – to be Americans,” Matthew Tkachuk said on Thursday. He liked that line so much he said it twice.

Can you imagine a pro athlete saying that any time in the last decade? It’s so old it’s new.

To get to back to that ‘We’re No. 1, We’re No. 1’ place, you just have to avoid reading the news closely, or caring about the little people. Pros are good at both things.

If grabbing this unique marketing opportunity means hockey has to sign on with the man in charge, then okay. Hockey was nice for a long time and got nothing for it. Now it’s time to get a little mean.

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