Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin reacts during the third period against the New Jersey Devils, on Oct. 25, 2023, in Newark, N.J.Adam Hunger/The Associated Press
“Kafkaesque!”
This is how Gary Smith chooses to describe the bizarre, often confusing machinations surrounding the Alexander Ovechkin race to catch and pass Wayne Gretzky as the greatest goal scorer in National Hockey League history.
Smith has seen hockey and politics entangle before, but never like this. He is, after all, the author of Ice War Diplomat: Hockey Meets Cold War Politics at the 1972 Summit Series, a deep insider account of hockey’s most-famous event … so far.
As a key member of the Canadian embassy in Moscow, Smith was privy to the game within the game – East versus West, democracy versus communism.
Today, all hockey eyes are on the goal race, with Ovechkin having tied Gretzky’s total of 894 regular-season goals with his pair Friday night against Chicago. Gretzky accomplished this in 1,487 games; Ovechkin did it in one game fewer and could potentially pass the Great One in his 1,487th match on Sunday afternoon against the New York Islanders. The symmetry is a bit bizarre.
Far more unusual, however, has been unexpected politicization of this hockey landmark more than a half-century after Paul Henderson put an end to any “commie” claim to be best in the world.
Ovechkin has long been tied to Russian President Vladimir Putin. They are friends, pose for photographs together and the greying, 39-year-old Ovechkin has never hidden his open support for the leader who is largely reviled in the West for his war on Ukraine.
Many are deeply offended by this. “If you clap and applaud when a record is broken,” Hall-of-Fame Czech goaltender Dominik Hasek recently posted, “then know that you are applauding not only the breaking of a given historical milestone, but also the most horrific Russian crimes, in which many hundreds of thousands, or rather more than a million people, were killed and maimed!”
Added Slava Malamud, a Russian-born sports commentator who lives in the U.S.: “How sickening is it that all of North American hockey is slobbering over a Russian who is a major Putin fan to boot?”
“Putin,” says Smith, “knows the value of sports, including hockey diplomacy, in building national prestige.”
The Russian president plays the game himself – albeit poorly – and sees it as a “soft power” in breaking down stereotypes with unfriendly countries. Following the huge success of the recent 4 Nations Face-Off, he has even suggested a Summit Series-style match, Russia versus USA. He sees such a tournament as great propaganda – hopefully playable before Ovechkin’s playing days are done.
Richard Gruneau, professor of communications at Simon Fraser University in B.C. and author of several works on hockey and sports, says “all generationally great athletes tend to become intertwined with national myths and the politics of their times.” Muhammad Ali, during the U.S. civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s, Ovechkin during Russia’s tumultuous last several years and … Wayne Gretzky during the second coming of Donald Trump.
In Gretzky’s Ontario hometown, pride in the hockey legend is waning
That Gretzky would end up linked to Trump is nothing short of astonishing to Gruneau. Working-class background, humble superstar, multiple Stanley Cups, Team Canada superhero, Cinderella wedding.
“We love the guy,” says Gruneau. But then the Canadian superstar is traded to Los Angeles where, nothing to do with him, he becomes a metaphor for the broader story of Canadian resources going to the U.S.
Not surprisingly, Gruneau says, the Canadian superstar is drawn more deeply into U.S. celebrity culture and eventually finds himself attached to right-leaning conservative Republican thinking. He is photographed with Trump at Mar-a-Lago. He is, perhaps quite unfairly, seen as someone who is to Trump as Ovechkin has been to Putin.
Both pay a price for such connections. Ovechkin gets little credit for recently calling his Washington Capitals teammates back out onto the ice to pay tribute to Minnesota Wild goaltender Marc-André Fleury, who will retire at season’s end.
He is, however, strongly and regularly slammed on social media.
As a parallel to all that, there has been a surprising backlash against Gretzky in Canada, the country that long considered him the favourite son. There are petitions to change street names intended to honour his legacy. Some soulless ‘fan’ spread human feces on the Gretzky statue that stands outside the rink in Edmonton.
“Canadians love it when one of their own goes off and becomes famous,” Gruneau says. “They cheered Gretzky’s success in the States. But Canadians hate it when successful ex-pats show a preference for the U.S. and appear to forget where they come from.”
Through no design of his own, Gruneau says, Gretzky has gone from a metaphor for lost resources to the U.S. to a metaphor for the Trumpian reaffirmation of U.S. economic and cultural power. Ovechkin, on the other hand, no longer seems such a liability, given the MAGA world view that, well, perhaps Putin ain’t such a bad guy after all.
Simplistic, perhaps, but isn’t sports? This has all caused a shift among some Canadians. Where they once held the Gretzky record as sacred, never, ever to be broken, there are today Canadians actually cheering Ovechkin on.
“The jury may be out on how to react in Canada when Gretzky’s record is surpassed,” Smith says. “One thing I know for sure is that the propaganda machine in Moscow will be loud and proud for the ‘Great Eight,’ Ovechkin.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to see a statue to him go up in Red Square.”