Team Canada’s Mike Bossy, left, Wayne Gretzky and Larry Robinson carry the Canada Cup trophy after beating Sweden 6-5 in Edmonton on Sept. 18, 1984. Gretzky used to stand for only one thing – Canada. He hasn’t for a long time. The Canadian Press
Looking at it now, Wayne Gretzky’s big mistake wasn’t being the postretirement Gretzky he’s always been. It was appearing alongside Mike Eruzione.
Ahead of Thursday’s U.S.-Canada 4 Nations final in Boston, the two acted as honorary captains. Mr. Gretzky came out first.
He was dressed in a cool blue suit – no red or white in sight. He stuck close to the American bench as he approached centre ice, giving multiple American players a thumbs up.
His demeanour was ‘been here, won that.’ This looked like an unpleasant job he was doing as a favour to a friend.
Then Mr. Eruzione – the hero of the Miracle on Ice – dropped into the scene. Physically, he is Mr. Gretzky’s opposite. A small, lumpy everyman, but someone who’s comfortable around people.
Mr. Eruzione wore Johnny Gaudreau’s Team USA jersey. He went up to each American player and fist-bumped them while looking them in the eye. He enjoined the crowd to get up and make noise. Cameras panned to Matthew Tkachuk looking like he’d just met Santa Claus.
And just like that, a great many Canadians decided they’d had enough of Wayne Gretzky.
It started on social media with news that Mr. Gretzky had been booed in some Canadian bars showing the game. That spread to fringe outlets using words like traitor. Which allowed mainstream outlets to use the word in quotes.
By Saturday, the contagion was airborne. Everybody wanted to talk about it, even people who don’t care about hockey. Being less inclined to cultism, they’d had their suspicions for a while.
By Sunday, the backlash to the backlash was starting. Canada turned on Don Cherry, and now it was turning on Mr. Gretzky.
That’s a full fall-from-grace cycle. It’s unlikely that Mr. Gretzky is interested in doing the reputational renaissance that should come next. It would mean coming back to Canada and talking about something other than the good old days, which he avoids.
So that’s it then. A nearly 50-year romance done. Canada will have to find a new boy king who emerges from a suburban basement.
Looking back on it, what could Mr. Gretzky have done differently?
He could’ve traded out the suit jacket for a sweater. Sidney Crosby’s No. 87 would have been a nice touch. Showed he isn’t a me-me-me guy.
Emphatic gestures to the Canadian team? Sure. At the very least, don’t be seen encouraging the enemy camp.
Slapped a great, big smile on his face? It gets a bad rap these days, but you can get away with just about anything with a genuine smile. It would have been better than the expression of concentrated neutrality Mr. Gretzky settled on.
Because it wasn’t about what Mr. Gretzky did. It was about how it looked. Canada got to see Wayne Gretzky, part-time Canadian, stood up beside Mike Eruzione, fully committed American, and something in them snapped.
For the first time, they saw Mr. Gretzky as he is rather than as he was. He’s no longer that skinny kid who seems amazed things are turning out so well.
He’s a 64-year-old man of the world of now, creased by experience and not much the better for it. He’s an other-direction carpet bagger, a golf world hanger-on and a Mar-a-Lago regular. When you see Mr. Gretzky up close now, the first word that leaps to mind is “louche.”
As of about a month ago, he is the polar opposite of what Canada wants in a representative.
The conversations I’ve had about it since boil down to, “What would Walter think?” – and then a sad, metaphoric shake of the head. People feel betrayed by Mr. Gretzky.
For decades, they invested him with a national myth. He took that power and used it to weasel his family into a crowd of people who hold Canada in contempt. When Canadians do see him these days, it’s on ads for a gambling website.
Thursday’s appearance sealed an impression of Mr. Gretzky most have had for years, but did not publicly express. That he’s the sort of guy who got out of here as fast as he could, and never comes back unless it’s to make a few bucks or get his tires pumped.
He’ll show up for any gala dinner, but when his best buddy the President is threatening to annex the country? Oh, you wouldn’t believe how busy he is then.
What baffles me is how Mr. Gretzky thought showing up for Canada at this moment would go. Has he been gone so long that he understands us so poorly? That he would throw us this meaningless bone and the country would drop to its knees: “You came to Boston? In winter?? God, will your sacrifices on our behalf never end?”
I guess it wasn’t a wild thing to believe. It’s always worked before. However good he was as a player, Mr. Gretzky was an even better semiotician. He instinctively understood symbols – the childhood photo with Gordie Howe, the over-the-top celebrations, the who-me? smile, the small turn of the head at the key moment. He was to sports what Princess Diana was to royalty – someone who turned their reticence into a superpower.
But for that to work, you have to appear genuine. To actually appear to mean the things you say and that you stand behind. You have to have a few things to stand behind.
That Gretzky vanished a long time ago. He’s been coasting on fumes from the nineties for years and years. Mr. Gretzky used to stand for only one thing – Canada. He hasn’t for a long time.
Still, Canada pretended it wasn’t so. When he did deign to swing by for dinner, we still acted like he was everyone’s favourite, but no one felt it any more. He was America’s guy now.
Things were probably irreparable after the first time he was pictured in a MAGA hat, gone full sycophant. But when he would not wear our uniform after wearing theirs, that was truly it.
It feels in a lot of ways that a new Canada is in the midst of forming right now. If so, it will need new heroes. In the end, Mr. Gretzky is doing us a favour. He’s giving us the chance to move on.
Cathal Kelly
The Globe and Mail, February 23, 2025