A Little Bit Canadian?

Canadian hockey is the envy of every country who has even just one player that laces up. This is not an opinion, a biased statement or a rant. It is a fact. Canadian hockey is great for many reasons, the players are amazing individually and as a whole, national teams create a sum of parts that cannot be matched.

Of the many traits that make a Canadian hockey player great, three are of utmost importance to make one in the top tier:

1. Skill - not much explanation needed, skills gained from a lifetime of practice and competing makes a Canadian hockey player unmatched (skating, shooting, passing, being awesome, etc.).

2. Grit - watch any playoff game and you will know what I mean, throwing big hits, taking big hits to make a play, blocking shots with any body part that will get the job done (covered by equipment or not).

3. Passion - the love for the game, the chasing of the dream, for every player that makes it there are thousands of guys that do not, all have the same love for the game and each guy that makes it represents the passion of every guy that does not.

There are lots of amazing players from around the world, and the truly great ones sometimes even display these traits to some degree. None though as much as Ovechkin. He is simply amazing and there is not one player I would prefer to watch right now more than him.

1. Skill - watch sportscentre any day after a Capitals game and you will see. He has insane speed, a killer shot (both in terms of velocity and accuracy) and dangles to challenge anyone out there.

2. Grit - who would of thought a Russian would ever show grit worth mentioning? Certainly not me, but he definitely does, always amongst the leaders in hits (unheard of for a skilled guy) and a willingness to drive the net like a prototypical power forward.

3. Passion - another thing usually lacking from the better Russian hockey players. Not Ovechkin though, this guy flat out loves the game, you can see it when he scores, when his teammates score and in the way he attacks at all times. It is even evident in the way he talks about the game.

Canadian hockey as a whole is still far and away the best, but as individual players go (and we have alot of them from this country), Ovechkin is the best right now (in my opinion). I hope some of the young Canadian players coming up will play the style he plays because I would love to argue the fact that a Canadian is the best, as has usually been the case.