Sunday, January 06, 2008

The Next Greatest One After

So Team Canada wins another World Junior Hockey Championship, with it over I look back at the greatness Wayne Gretzky, like his idol Gordie Howe, really was in the sport of hockey, really the closest next great one to him will always be Mario Lemieux. Now I am sure I can be attacked, especially as I am not quite the fan of hockey as others are, though I have always been cheering for the Detroit Red Wings to bring home the Stanley Cup to Hockeytown since I was a kid, glad now Danmark has a national team for play later in the Olympics. But ever since Eric Lindros, a player who phobia of Sault Ste. Marie I myself clearly misunderstood at the athletic level, I have questioned all successors to GWG's crown. Alexandre Daigle, Jason Spezza and Sidney Crosby would all follow in the years to come, John Tavares now and whoever is next. What I think people are missing is that qualities Gordie, Wayne and Mario had, today have been lost forever, tomorrow can never gain these missing elements, which is why the next greatest one after likely will never be. Just a thought I had while standing in at goal, during a traditional family Boxing Day shinty hockey game in the comfortably cute Keady Community Centre, with a 1972 Team Canada Summit Series jersey on, Team USA beanie above and atop it a Viking helmet for Team Danmark.