Wanna blog? Start your own hockey blog with My HockeyBuzz. Register for free today!
 

Kopitar earns Kings' 'C', underscores emptiness of anti-European sentiment

June 16, 2016, 8:51 PM ET [6 Comments]
Adam Proteau
Blogger •NHL Columnist • RSSArchiveCONTACT
With Anze Kopitar was presented Thursday with the Los Angeles Kings’ captaincy, the Slovenian center bumped the number of European-born current NHL captains to eight – but that’s not out of 30 teams. It’s out of 26, as four teams don’t presently employ a formal captain. That nearly one-third of the league’s franchises have a European wearing the ‘C’ isn’t necessarily news – eight years ago, nine of 29 teams that used a captain chose non-North-American players for the role – but it does underscore what some of us have said for decades: savvy and inspirational hockey leadership doesn’t have a nationality.

Remember when that was a debatable issue, contested by men with apparent sincerity? You should. It wasn’t all that long ago you’d be hard-pressed to find a European captain in the sport’s top league. Prior to the turn of the century, NHL teams relied almost exclusively on North Americans for the captaincy. There were only dozens in the history of the league then, in part due to the game’s demographical history, but in part due to the closed borders for opportunities at that level. It was all some Europeans could do to avoid the “soft” and “uninterested in competing” in the early years; ascending to the very top of a team’s organizational chart was next to impossible for them.

But slowly, and surely, the truth of the matter revealed itself when it came to European captains: Peter Stastny begat Thomas Steen, and Steen begat Mats Sundin, and Sundin begat Jaromir Jagr, and Jagr begat Zdeno Chara and Nicklas Lidstrom, who begat Kopitar. Without any fanfare, a rubicon was crossed, and now it is absolutely preposterous to suggest Europeans want to win a Stanley Cup any less than North Americans, and/or that their professionalism and the example they set in their daily work habits are somehow lacking by comparison.

Now, when you look at some of the most respected players on the planet – the engines for their team, and the ambassadors for their line of work – you’re looking at guys like Henrik Zetterberg in Detroit, Erik Karlsson in Ottawa, and Henrik Sedin in Vancouver. Chara has been a godsend for the Bruins. Mikko Koivu has been a rock in Minnesota. And, prior to being named captain in L.A., Kopitar has grown into a leader for the Kings. In his 10 years with the franchise, the 28-year-old became one of the NHL’s most reliable and well-rounded competitors, and, on a roster filled with veterans, he’s stood out as particularly exceptional.

It may make certain individuals feel better about themselves to pretend one nation has divine providence over an element of hockey or the game itself, but the facts belie them. The sport never suffers when it becomes more diverse, and hockey isn't going to get less diverse as the world around it changes. We shouldn't be shocked to eventually see a Chinese-born NHL captain, a Nigerian-born captain, a captain born in Paris and another in Egypt.

But you probably wouldn’t believe any of it was remotely possible when I was a kid in the mid-to-late 1970s and early 80s. If you’d told anyone in those years that a kid from Jesenice, Slovenia would work his way up the ranks to earn the ‘C’ for a two-time Cup-winning organization in one of the biggest media markets in existence, you’d be laughed out of the room and invited back in so they could kick you out of the room immediately after. You’d be told, in actions more than words, that your defining quality was something you had no control over, that where you came into the world mattered more than what you did once you were in it.

Thank goodness Kopitar and Lidstrom and Jagr and Sundin and Chara never paid that nonsense much mind. Thank god they let their effort, the passage of time, and the inexorable push of progress prove one day’s conventional wisdom can amount to so much snake oil not all that many days later.
Join the Discussion: » 6 Comments » Post New Comment
More from Adam Proteau
» Proteau's Division Predictions
» Proteau's Division Predictions
» Pre-season picks: Atlantic Division
» Pre-season picks: Metropolitan Division
» Pre-season picks: Pacific Division