9 hours Ago By Father Raymond J. de Souza
Article content The NHL’s “4 Nations Face-Off” was only a facsimile of the Canada Cups of the 1980s, let alone the Olympics or the 1972 Soviet-Canada series. Yet Canadians instantly recognized that Connor McDavid’s overtime winner now belongs alongside the goals of Paul Henderson in 1972, Mario Lemieux in 1987 and Sidney Crosby in 2010. Crosby’s golden goal at the Vancouver Olympics defeated the Americans in overtime, too.
Fifteen years later, there is silver in Crosby’s hair and gold around his neck again. On Thursday night, Canada’s captain was winning again. Perhaps he will get tired of it.
In 2010 though, the Americans were our friends. They will be again, but for now their government is not. President Donald Trump made as much as clear on Thursday morning, denigrating our sovereignty again.
Canada won gold on the ice, but silver in the Trump betrayals this week. Ukraine got that gold. The McDavid goal was the direct heir to Lemieux’s winning goal in the 1987 Canada Cup.
The best-of-three final against the Soviet Union was indisputably the greatest hockey series ever played — 33 goals in three nights, 6-5 the score each time, two overtime games. And then the final goal , Wayne Gretzky to Mario Lemieux, and joyful tears held dominion from sea to sea. The 1987 Gretzky-Lemieux goals were works of art.
Was there a more beautiful moment in the history of Canadian sport than the final goal? That Canada Cup was peace, order and good government versus the evil empire. Freedom versus tyranny. And beauty was on the side of the angels.
This is not that. America remains a great country, and the current president’s turning against its allies is a turning, too, against the noblest parts of America’s own history. The American people remain our friends, and we theirs.
Canada defeated the U.S. in an arena named after the Toronto-Dominion Bank.
Commerce and comity unite us, even when politics divides. And so hockey had to do again what it has not had to do in Canada for nearly 40 years: convey a pressing political message. That done, how strange and how unpleasant this has been! Booing the national anthem of any country does not lift the heart; it vents the spleen.
The lyrics of anthems ought not be altered, but even good rules have exceptions, and Winnipeg’s Chantal Kreviazuk got it right by singing “true patriot love that only us command .” How strange and unpleasant to see honorary captain Wayne Gretzky and not think of the Copps Coliseum in 1987 but Mar-a-Lago in 2024. Gretzky has joined the legions that have been tarnished by his association with Trump.
With his silence on the “51st state” belligerence — even Trump’s suggestion that he run for “governor” of Canada — Gretzky failed to meet the demands of the moment. Perhaps there will be another occasion to make the Great One great again. Trump has often proved an ungracious loser through his business and political career.
He is also an ungracious winner. Canada can retaliate against his hostility in matters of money, but we ought not degrade ourselves in matters of manners. Canada won.
The anthem was sung with pride. The political point was made on the ice, which occasionally must be done. But that, too, is an exception to the rule.
Canada got the victory. Win graciously. Cheer loudly.
Weep softly. The time for booing the anthem is over. Take the advice offered by Trump, which he refuses to apply to himself: success is the best revenge.
As for McDavid, just last spring he did what few players have ever done, winning the Conn Smythe trophy as the playoff MVP despite losing the Stanley Cup final. It’s not a distinction that he desired. But now he belongs to a still more exclusive club alongside Henderson, Lemieux and Crosby — the scorers of the glorious goals of Canadian history.
May he be rewarded with a Stanley Cup before long. The “four nations” tournament did not include Russia for reasons obvious even to the NHL. Trump wants Vladimir Putin back in the G7, likely so that he has a friend to accompany him.
Canada hosts the G7 this coming June in Alberta. Whoever is prime minister should invite McDavid to welcome Trump at the airport. National Post.
