Tank youse Hed. I `ave a bit of a problem here since you gave me da title of National Sports Editor, because you never made it clear which national sport I was supposed to report on. Different countries have different sports, eh. Canada has two -- the national winter sport (ice hockey) [Is there some other kind of hockey? Ed.] and the national summer sport (lacrosse), which is like hockey but more violent. Or at least that's the way it used to be.
And the American national sport is... what... baseball? The rest of the world plays games like soccer (which they call "football" for some reason) and cricket, which are incredibly effete and boring. So which sport am I supposed to cover?
OK, I'm gonna do the one I know best, the only one which might be considered a natural for a blog named Walt Whiteman's World.
But first, a word about two American "national" (by name) sports -- National Basketball (as in NBA) and National Football (as in NHL). In terms of fan interest and revenue, those leagues have had the worst year in history, and will probably have another such in 2021.
The leagues and the lamestream sports media (hello ESPN!) blame Covid-19 for their tanking ratings. I don't see that. With large swaths of North America under varying degrees of lockdown, common sense says there should be more people staying at home, hiding from the dreaded Kung flu, with nothing better to do than watch TV and, errr, the other thing.
What, then, is the reason why fewer Americans [and Canadians! Ed.] are watching basketball and football, and baseball too? Dare we say that it could be because fans are fed up with the anti-American demonstrations performed by some non-white players and their "woke" colleagues, not to mention the sports media.
This year it became a "thing" to "take a knee" during the (alleged) singing of the Star-Spangled Banner, to protest the horrible injustices of slavery, colonialism, racism, discrimination yada yada yada. It's more fashionable now than at any time since the Vietnam war to diss the flag of the United States of America and the Republic for which it stands. Patriotic Americans have noticed, and have reacted predictably and appropriately.
How did that happen? Well, the NHL requires the home team -- Toronto, in this case -- to provide an emergency goaltender in the unlikely event of injury to either team's starting and backup goalies. The standby goalie gets paid a few bucks and gets to watch the game. But on the night of February 22nd, both of the Hurricanes' goaltenders (James Reimer and Petr Mrazek) were injured, so David Ayres entered the game at 8:41 of the second period, after signing a one-game contract.
Wearing a Maple Leafs t-shirt under his equipment, he allowed goals on the first two shots that he faced before stopping the next eight shots on goal, along with recording a shot on goal of his own (!) to help seal a 6–3 win for Carolina. He thus became the first emergency goaltender to record a win in NHL history! He also became the oldest goaltender (at 42 years, 194 days) to win his NHL regular-season debut.
Ayres was cheered to the rafters by the Toronto fans, and named first star of the game. He kept his game-worn jersey and game puck, and donated his game-used goalie stick to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Had he signed a Professional Try-Out Agreement he would have been paid $500 for the game, but Ayres said after the game that under the terms of his contract he was not paid. Hurricanes' forward Sebastian Aho said teammates pulled together and gave Ayres a little bit of money.
Following the game, the Carolina team announced that they would be selling T-shirts with Ayres' name and sweater number (90), with royalties going to Ayres and a portion of the proceeds being donated to a kidney foundation of Ayres' choice. But wait, there's more! Ayres was invited to sound the siren at the start of the Hurricanes home game on February 25th, which was declaired "David Ayres Day" in the City of Raleigh.
The NHL and its players have agreed on terms for a 56-game season to start on January 13th. It looks as if almost all 31 teams will be playing in their proper cities and arenas, probably without fans, but you can bet that, in Canada at least, hockey-starved fans will be put TV ratings through the roof!
My favourite Montréal Canadiens look to have been strengthened greatly by some smart off-season acquisitions by GM Marc Bergevin. Moreover, because of the realignment of divisions forced by that old debbil Covid-19 and the closure of the US-Canada border, the Habs will be playing in an all-Canadian "Northern Division". So I'd say they, and Canadian fans should be set for a memorable 2021 season... maybe even a Stanley Cup!
Coming next: Walt's pick for 2020 Man of the Year. Does Walt have a surprise in store for you? Probably not...
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