STORY BY: ROY BELLAMY
Let us put an epilogue on the 4 Nations Face-Off as a whole.
This tournament was created as a means to replace this season’s All-Star Game.
Now the All-Star Game for the past, I would say several seasons, have been subpar. In fact, they’ve sucked. We could say the same thing about the NBA All-Star Game. So the creation of this best on best international tournament was a much needed change of pace for the NHL.
No one saw how big this was going to grow when the concept was unveiled last year. Then again, no one expected the results of the election either. And that’s where we are…the politics of the thing. I don’t know if it’s remembered by anyone other than the players, but it certainly is by me. The beginning of the tournament, Team USA was dedicating their path to where they eventually finished to Johnny Gaudreau.
Johnny would have been playing in this tournament if not for the tragic accident that took the life of him and his brother. The team had been hanging what would have been his jersey in an empty locker stall the entire tournament.
But by the start of this week, it seemed like all of that outside of locker room had been forgotten…through no fault of the players.
The reason why is, is because of the politics of the thing. Weeks prior to the tournament even starting the President decided to issue tariffs on goods coming in from Canada.
That’s led to Canadian retailers refusing to stock their shelves with American products, like bourbon. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the rhetoric of annexing Canada and making it the 51st state had our neighbors to the north seething.
Before the first half of the NHL regular season ended, we saw fans of most of the Canadian teams in the NHL boo The Star-Spangled Banner as the American teams roll through their buildings.
Fast forward to the second game of the tournament, USA vs. Canada. You could feel the tension on television. I can’t imagine how it felt in the building. It felt like…anger. And that anger spilled out onto the ice after the first three faceoffs and the first nine seconds of the game.
Eventually, the United States shut Canada down in their own barn. What didn’t shut down, however, was the rhetoric as we realized the inevitable matchup of these two teams in the final game was a reality.
A lot of that rhetoric came from the team’s front office.
Just a few days ago we saw Bill Guerin, the general manager of Team USA, go on Fox News and lobby for the President to come to Boston to talk to the team. He settled for a phone call.
I hate that Guerin did that. I know it feels like it’s something you’re supposed to do, get the President involved. And honestly if it was any other president, no matter what side of the aisle, it would be. But with THIS president, it feels like, with this matchup being ratcheted up because of the politics of the thing, they’re embracing being the villain…the big bad bully.
I feel conflicted about this entire thing. To me, with the way I feel about how this administration has gone about its business, it feels reckless. It feels like at the end of this tournament, we’ve all come out dirty on the other side. And all of this for a made-up mid-season international tournament that was created solely for a cash grab. Not for these players, though.
The Americans are playing for their country, playing for the flag, playing for the memory of Johnny Gaudreau. But for the rest of us, it’s sad to see that the initial inspiration of playing for Johnny be forgotten and replaced with something that feels like it’s coming from a hateful place.
I don’t enjoy how I feel about this game, much like I don’t enjoy how I feel about the current state of this nation. But let us all wrap ourselves with the flag for the most meaningful meaningless game this sport has had in a long time.
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