Celebrations

Anyone who follows the NHL regularly has heard about this topic extensively for the last two weeks or so. It started with this rant from Canadian hockey analyst Don Cherry. The sparknotes version:

• Ovechkin's classic celebration (kissing glove, jumping into teammates/glass) is soccer-like and completely over-the-top.
• What Ovechkin does is not what we should be teaching young hockey players.
• Cherry cites some examples of Ovechkin's celebrations, most of which came from big goals: hat tricks, overtime winners, etc.
• Cherry wants players to act like classic Canadians, not Europeans like Ovechkin.
• Cherry predicts that someone will send Ovechkin into a million pieces.
• Cherry compares Ovechkin to Sean Avery, which basically means Ovechkin is classless.

Well, Cherry is known for being anti-European on his show, and in the past he's favored Canadians over Europeans time and time again. So this is certainly not a surprise move by Cherry. But my rebuttal, which is the rebuttal of every Caps fan out there: Ovechkin's celebrations are spontaneous, full of emotion, excitement, and passion, three qualities every young hockey player should have. Ovechkin exemplifies love of the game. He's not trying to draw attention to himself or anything, he's just having fun and showing his excitement in playing the game he loves. I, personally, love the jumping into the glass, because it involves the fans. I find it interesting that Canadian players have done just what Ovechkin does (if not more), and Cherry fails to notice it. Sidney Crosby has copied the "jump-into-the-glass," but yet not a word is said.

As if to stick it to Cherry, Ovechkin went out of his way to celebrate his record 50th goal in a celebration that mirrored some of the recent NFL celebrations. You can see it here. As you can see from the video, Ovechkin joined elite company with the goal: only Mike Bossy and Wayne Gretzky have accomplished what he just did.

Tampa Bay players and head coach Rick Tocchet told the media after the game that they felt disrespected and will be looking to get Ovechkin next game (as Cherry predicted). Well, they had two periods to try, and couldn't, and won't be able to this Friday. Also, Ovechkin doesn't mean disrespect, he's just having fun, and the celebration wouldn't have happened if Cherry never said anything in the first place.

Still, people can't help but draw conclusions to players like Chad Johnson or Terrell Owens, two NFL players who had many pre-planned celebrations like Ovechkin. The difference between Alex and those two is that Alex did it to be funny, but CJ and TO do it to get attention. Ovechkin's usual celebrations are not even close to anything those two have done, so that gets thrown out the window. Ovechkin will most likely never do a pre-planned celebration again.

I can't understand why so many people are getting upset over celebrations. The NFL has banned the use of the ball in celebrations so that players won't "taunt" other teams so that they don't "feel bad." The NCAA has dolled out 15-yard penalties for something as simple as a ball flip. Luckily, the NHL hasn't gotten that far. I'll be sick if they ban Ovechkin's celebrations. It will be a sad day in sports, indeed. It's getting kind of ridiculous. I can understand the ban on prop-filled celebrations: they can be over-the-top. But there's too much of an emphasis these days on making sure nothing can be offensive or make someone feel bad.

Before you know it, leagues will be penalizing high-fiving or any sort of congratulatory act. God forbid we make the other team feel bad about giving up a touchdown/goal.