Jason Spezza's Good Deed Of The Week

If you know me at all (or read my sports-and-collectibles blog), you know I'm a huge hockey fan. Not just of my hometown Montréal Canadiens, mind you, but of the sport as a whole, its history, its personalities.

And while I've been a Habs follower since I was a kid - we even had season tickets from when I was 7 until I was 17 - it has become increasingly difficult to identify with the team of late - with any team in this economy-driven, salary-cap era where they sell you players, almost shove them down your throat, but trade them away seemingly on a whim after you've shelled out your hard-earned money on team items bearing their faces or names. And you're forced to accept it, and love the new guy immediately, and spend your money on him instead. And boo the old guy every time he comes back in town to play against the team he used to bleed for.

It's also why I can't root for ''for my home country of Canada'' and ''all of its players'' at the Olympics when Habs players I'm supposed to cheer for (and do) during the 50 other weeks of the year are separated into 6 teams, while Canada only has two, one of which they decide not to dress for meaningful games, and the rest of its team is comprised mostly of guys I'd rather see never win another hockey game, ever (such as members of the San Jose Sharks).

Still, I root for the Habs as a general rule. But I also wish the Colorado Avalanche the best, especially now that their front-office staff is comprised of Joe Sakic (the best player between the Wayne Gretzky era and the current Evgeni Malkin era) and Patrick Roy (without whom the Habs would be on a 35-year Stanley Cup drought rather than 21, and would have 22 in total instead of 24).

And I'd rather see an Original Six team (except the Toronto Maple Leafs, fuck the Leafs!) or at the very least an Original Twelve-plus-the-Canadian teams (again, except the Leafs). And teams Roy has played for (Habs, Avalanche). That's it. No other team should ever lift the Stanley Cup. That's 16 teams (Montréal, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, Colorado and even on rare occasions Winnipeg) out of 30, which seems like a reasonable number to me.

But I digress. So I love the sport as a whole, and some players more than others. Current (and hopefully career-long) Habs Andrei Markov and Tomas Plekanec top the list, but with them stand former Canadiens Saku Koivu and Mike Ribeiro. And Ottawa Senators captain Jason Spezza, an electrifying stickhandler, and one of the best passers in the game.

I've featured Spezza on my sports blog four times already, but I came across a story that I thought deserved inclusion here instead, where he learned that a ''very sick young boy'' had his autographed pictures of both Spezza and Sens star defenseman Erik Karlsson stolen in a car break-in.

As the article states:

Ottawa Police began searching for the perpetrator but Spezza wasn't interested in waiting for an outcome.

Instead, he got the whole team so sign a Sens jersey (great show of leadership from their new captain!), and he and Karlsson signed tons more stuff for the kid:

Not just a great hockey player, but a great person, and team ambassador (free good publicity). Well done, sir.

And Now, Sports...

The New York Yankees are trailing their series 3-1. I never thought that would happen. Of course, of late, it happens more and more, but each time I fail to believe it. They're awesome, they always make the playoffs, year in and year out. Their ''making the post-season'' record for the past 20 years is the best in baseball, it's incredible. But we mostly remember when they fail now, which is unfair.

Speaking of unfair, Louis Jean, of Sportsnet, is using Scott Gomez' salary to put him down and call him ''disappointing so far'', 5 games into the season. 5 games into an 82-game season, plus playoffs. But we all know Gomez isn't likely to put more than 60 points up on the board: it's his usual number, one he's reached or flirted with 8 times in his 9-season NHL career. To expect more is unfair. Sure, he has the statistics of a 4.5-million dollar man and is paid 7.3 - take the $3M difference as the price to pay for a two-time Stanley Cup winner, a Calder trophy winner, a responsible 2-way center, someone who stands up when the stakes are risen (say, the playoffs), and a bonus paid to have him on your team rather than the team you're competing against every night.

To expect more, statistically, than his usual 60 points amounts to, as I wrote in this post about Jason Spezza:

You can't get milk out of a stallion, and chances are you'll be disappointed if you try. And you'll end up with something else altogether.

Funny how in Ottawa, they have a 90-point guy and want him to play better defensively, like Scott Gomez, yet in Montréal, we have Gomez, and some people expect Spezza-like statistics from him. These guys have made it to be among the best at what they do in the best league in the world for their sport - and it's never enough.

Then again, that column was written by Louis Jean - the most over-rated, under-qualified reporter at Sportsnet. He's only on the Habs beat because he can speak and understand Québec French.