By Karen Aney (Contributer) – Email
I’m going to go ahead and preface this article with a big ol’ disclaimer: I am not a fair-weather fan. I love my Canucks. I have loved my Canucks since I started watching them in my high chair, and I love them no more or less this season than I did those seasons that they didn’t make the playoffs. That being said, I have some pretty solidly defined feelings about certain players on my team. Because I feel so strongly about the team in its entirety, I have some fairly definite ideas about what type of person I want to watch in the ol’ blue, white, and green (or black, red, and orange – or red and white.) Because of this, I have a serious hatred for Ryan Kesler.
Let me explain. Vancouver is a very emotional fan base; we love our team, but many people suffer chafing from jumping on and off the bandwagon every season. This means that it’s not enough for our hockey team to just be a team. Every sports team will have its up seasons and down seasons, especially in the NHL with the salary caps – at least in MLB you can call yourself a Yankees fan and usually be assured that you’re going to see some amazing baseball players wearing your colours.
It’s more than that in the NHL. The salary caps and trading rules make the playoffs a story of coaching, management, and dumb luck more than anything else. So, given the realities of the NHL and the emotional climate in Vancouver, the Canucks need to be more than just great hockey players in order to retain their fan base. Kesler, unfortunately, is nothing more than a great hockey player with a hot head.
The Canucks need to be more. They need to do things like donate 1.5 million dollars to Children’s Hospital – and attempt to do it anonymously (deities bless you, Sedins.) They need to use their day off to play Scrabble with a local blogger, and spend the weeks before that drumming up donations for Canucks Place (way to put that Dartmouth education to use, T-Glass.) They do not need to blather on about “hating Canada,” as Kesler infamously did during the Olympics. Even if his words were meant in jest, it’s inappropriate to display such an attitude during a tournament meant to promote peace and unity, especially when a team belonging to that country pays your salary. I will concede that Kesler’s attitude has softened considerably in the past year, and that it has done incredible things for his game, but it’s not enough to make me love the fact that he’s on my team.
What’s more, I cringe every time I see him being interviewed or “having words” with a player on the ice. The truth is that the boy doesn’t know how to conduct himself as a public figure, and the ability to be a good role model is crucial in the Vancouver industry.
We don’t want or need another Bertuzzi, and while Kesler isn’t nearly as bad as the man who turned “Steve Moore” into a verb, his attitude over the years hasn’t shown that he’s able to keep his head when emotions run high. When the inevitable happens, even though I’m a die-hard Canuck fan, I’ll have a difficult time supporting him.
