You know things are upside down in the world when you have Don Cherry sticking up for a Russian hockey player.
However, when it comes to the debate on whether people should harass Alex Ovechkin for having an old picture on social media with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Cherry is siding with the Great Eight.
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“I say leave him alone,” Grapes told The Toronto Sun Sunday, just before the 5 p.m. game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Washington Capitals.
Cherry was responding to social media suggestions that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau should not have let Ovechkin into Canada and that Leafs Nation boo the superstar.
“He’s a hockey player,” said Cherry. “He has nothing to do with the war in Ukraine. None of this is his fault. He’s not involved in it.”
To be fair, Ovechkin is in a tough spot, and he knew Putin before the dictator’s army invaded Ukraine.
But people still are not giving him any slack, and are instead trying to whip up hate against him. Efforts to target him are discriminatory and driven by a mob culture.
Cherry said he’s not surprised. He’s seen this kind of pile on before.
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“It’s the same crowd that went after me,” he said. “They don’t care about hockey, and it’s not about hockey. Alex is a great player and great person, and he deserves better than to be treated like this.”
Even Cherry sees the irony of that statement. He’s as pro-Canada and pro-military as any person.
Who would have ever thought the support would come from a patriotic Canadian who made a career on Hockey Night in Canada being critical of European players.
While the 89-year-old icon will be solidly behind our Canadian troops in every situation, count him out if it comes to putting blame for the Russian invasion on one high profile player.
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Cherry also finds it ironic that some of the people who went after him for the “You people” comments that resulted in the cancellation of his Coach’s Corner segment are now the ones telling Ovechkin and other players to go back to Russia. His popular Hockey Night in Canada segment was cancelled after he complained he rarely saw people he believed to be new immigrants wearing poppies ahead of Remembrance Day.
Cherry never asked for anybody to be expelled from the country. He just wanted everybody to wear a poppy to remember the fallen troops who died for our freedom. Now the same people seem to be OK with xenophobia when it’s them doing it.
The double standard is hard to miss.
In this world today, there always seems to be a pack ready to try to cancel somebody.
Ovechkin is an easy target. If Canada wants to fight Putin, dumping on a hockey player is not the answer.
Besides, Ovechkin has called for peace and for there to be no more war.
It takes an old hockey coach to have old-time common sense.
Cherry said he separates what’s happening politically from the game on the ice, and feels that fans should, as well.
He’s criticized Ovechkin’s play on the ice, but it was never personal.
“It’s all about how he is playing and this guy, as he goes for Wayne (Gretzky’s) goal scoring record of 894, is playing hard.”
That, insisted Grapes, should be the focus. Cherry urged fans to cheer him on for that and forget about the rest.