The Two Sides of Change
First order of business: Sorry it’s been so long between blogs. This is HARD! The thing with hockey is that with 50+ games a week, by the time I get something written out, it’s already been covered by the zillions of other hockey blogs out there. And sure, I could write a different opinion but really, does anyone actually want to read a re-hash of Thomas Voukun’s near Da Vinci-esque moment? Or whether Ballard should be suspended for accidentally clobbering the aforementioned teammate? Or remember that time when the Wings scored that goal but they really didn’t but actually they really did? Yeah, I thought so.
So currently, there is an Alex Ovechkin hate-fest going on in the NHL. I suspect that he plays hockey the way he wants to play, which is different than many players because they just don’t have his skill set. It’s as if you’ve got pond hockey, professional hockey, and the Ovechkin-style hockey, which is apparently a balls-out, take-no-prisoners war on ice. People are calling him reckless and I completely agree with that assessment and I am, in fact, actually happy to see it. As is Ted Leonsis, owner of the Washington Capitals. On his website he wrote:
“[Ovechkin] plays the game the way it was designed. He is just bigger and faster than anyone.”
Caps fans are getting all tripped up over this, especially after SI.com’s Jim Kelley wrote what JP from Japer’s Rink calls “an inaccurate, irresponsible and outright malicious piece of garbage.” The column was harsh and made more so because Kelley seems intent on calling out Leonsis (and later Coach Bruce Boudreau) of backsliding on their original comments regarding Ovechkin’s hit on Tim Gleason which resulted in a major penalty and two game suspension:
“Both Ovechkin and Leonsis seem to see nothing wrong with the reckless way in which the superstar plays the game or what appears to be an utter distain [sic] for critics who argue that he needs to develop a more wholesome approach.”
While Kelley’s article attempts to carefully add “what appears to be” so as not to outright declare that Ovechkin shows utter disdain toward critics. FYI: I don’t think anyone sees through that, Mr. Kelley. However, despite the fact that the article was extremely biased and borderline bad journalism, why does anyone care?
Hockey players have been demonized for as long as the game has been around. This is a sport which creates player roles specifically for “pests” and “enforcers” and then gets up in arms when players act obnoxiously and violently. The NHL has created it’s own monster by letting players push the boundaries while still refusing to figure out how they ought to deal with the repercussions when those boundaries are broken. Fans enjoy seeing boundaries pushed; they revel in the intensity of the play. Certain rules have been altered in the last several years to allow for faster play and players have gotten bigger, faster, and stronger. Goaltending pads have evolved, sticks are trending toward graphite and fiberglass over wood, advances in medicine and science allow players to train more efficiently and recover more quickly from injuries. Stylistically, the NHL is becoming a little more glamorous: hosting last season’s awards ceremony in Las Vegas and holding next year’s draft in Los Angeles. And yet, the NHL seems to pull back the reins whenever possible, wanting the game to gain popularity but wanting it to do so exclusively on their terms. The game has a long and storied history, one which nobody wants to see disappear but one which is still being written. Many people seemingly separate the game of hockey, the actual game itself, from the sport. They want the sport to be bigger, better, faster, but they want to game to stay the same, and that’s simply not possible.
I don’t believe that any fan of hockey wants to see the sport become a bloodbath or a circus of knee-on-knee hits and boarding calls and cracked skulls. But when writers like Jim Kelley openly call players like Ovechkin out by insinuating that he ought to play a “more wholesome approach” and further critisizing coaches and owners for not trying to enforce that behavior, he is inadvertently halting the progress and evolution of the sport. Perhaps it is an awkward time for hockey in the US and Canada, a transitional stage, if you will. If the game is to advance competitively and in popularity, the league must define a better balance between flagrant attacks and honest, hard play. It will be a blurry line, to be sure, and there will always be calls and decisions that fans, coaches and players vehemently disagree with. When we argue though, it need not always be on behalf of a player like Ovechkin. In this case, I think the specific player is inconsequential–if Jim Kelley and his detractors want to jump on Ovechkin, that’s fine by me. The issue is how Ovechkin, or any player, is expected to react and conform after an instance such as this. It’s vitally important that, as fans, we do not call on our players to tone down or change their games because the sport will never change that way. It will only stagnate. This is why we should care.
December 5th, 2009 at 11:47 am
Eric Lindros went through these attacks. Scott Stevens went through these attacks and now it’s Ovie’s turn. It’s sad that when a superstar plays the game like it should be played they are demonized. In an interview Brett Hull stated that the first thing he did when he came over the boards was to look at who the other team had on the ice and defended himself accordingly. In other words if Scott Stevens was out there Hull would keep his head up and not put himself in dange, not enough players think like that. Ovie plays the game hard, Mike Richards plays the game hard, when they are on the ice opposition players should be aware. To blame only one side for these injuries is convenient but a little shortsighted, it’s like a boxer blaming his opponent for knocking him out with an uppercut…”I never saw it coming, it was a dirty punch…”
Jim Kelley saw a chance to get his name and his magazine into the spotlight with this article and he took it. As a veteran hockey writer that is in the Hockey Hall of Fame I have my doubts if he actually believes what he wrote in his article. His comparing Ovie to Bertuzzi or McSorley is tabloid writing at its finest and just the type of writing that appeals to most SI readers; non hockey fans. Terrible journalism from someone that should know better.