Page 52 of Hockey Bois
“It’s underrated because hockey is underrated as a sport in this country. They emphasize footballwaytoo much.” He pointedly didnotlook at the crowd behind him, but they did a fine job of pointing themselves out by clapping for a fair catch. “Even baseball is more established in some places, so they don’t appreciate how fucking awesome the Cup is. It’s a thirty-five-pound metal trophy that can only be lifted by the very best. You can fuckingdrink beerout of it in celebration. It’s just as hard to win as any of the other sports trophies. Definitely harder to win than the Lombardi Trophy since we do best of seven. Anybody having a hot streak can win the Superbowl; only a team with the right grit and talent can get the Cup.”
Nick nodded approvingly.
“Winning gold: underrated or overrated?”
Brady chewed the inside of his lip for this one, a thumb rubbing absentmindedly over the rim of his beer. “Overrated,” he finally said.
This time he nudged Brady with his leg under the table. And didn’t pull it away after. “Why?”
“It’s the friggin’ Olympics. It’s an honor, yeah, and it’shard, harder than winning the Cup, but for stupidly contrived reasons. Only one opportunity every four years, for starters. You have to have a good team built from your countrymen, and for teams like Russia, it’s very… micromanaged. Even if they’ve got good players, they use ’em badly. In the US, it’s hard to get a good coach. Torts? Really? No Kessel? Fucking BS, man. Plus, there’s the league always wobbling back and forth on if the NHL players are allowed to play. What fucking good is a gold medal if the actual best players aren’t there? It’s a fucking lie, that’s what it is.”
A man after his own heart… not that Nick wasn’t already aware of this.
Actually, maybe time to test that. Put a real strain on the relationship, so to speak.
“Crosby?” he asked innocently.
Brady made a noise deep in his throat, a mix of aggravation and reluctance.
“Properly rated,” he said on an exhale. “I think Pens fans and Canadians tend to overrate him, and I think yinz in the District tend to underrate him. The two individual group opinions balance out. The average of what we think and you think is probably a lot more accurate than either side.”
Nick snorted. “Yeah, okay. Should I assume you’d say the same for Ovechkin?”
“Yeah, similar thing. Definitely underrated by Pens fans. If this were pre-Cup, I’d say he was underrated by all non-Caps fans. All that bullshit about how he’s not a leader or whatever ’cuz he hadn’t won, as if it isn’t a team sport. Put Crosby on the Coyotes or something, see if there’s a Cup there. I mean, look at McDavid with the Oilers. One player can only make so much impact. ’Course I might’ve been slowly brainwashed by living here.”
“I mean, nothing wrong with givin’ Ovi some much-needed love.”
“Neutral-zone trap,” Brady shot back, immediately changing the subject and probably hoping Nick wouldn’t notice. “Underrated or overrated?”
“Underrated,” Nick said reluctantly. “It’s sound strategy for some teams, especially at our level where we need to be able to slow things down and take control. By you specifically? Overrated.”
“Fuck off,” Brady mumbled and took a sip of his beer, but he was smiling.
“What? It’sboringto watch.”
“Fighting in hockey, then,” Brady countered. “Underrated or overrated?”
“Overrated. It’s exciting, but it’s stupid. People get hurt often enough as it is. Why are we encouraging more injuries? And then you get dumb shits who play at our level who think that’s actually part of the sport—itisn’t, just fucking look at European leagues—and try to start shit at a Tuesday night adult rec-league game. Grow the fuck up, for fuck’s sake.”
They went back and forth. Don Cherry, the Canadian color commentator whom they both agreed was kind of a racist asshole, they deemed overrated. NHL Commissioner Bettman they also determined was overrated, despite being universally hated. They argued about star players like McDavid, Laine, and Matthews, as well as teams like the Oilers, the Kings, and the Leafs. There were other things thrown in for discussion as well—nationally broadcast games, radio coverage of games, delay of game, Corsi stats, and a dozen more—and they were usually able to convince the other to their side.
“Jaromir Jagr,” Nick said. He had to overemphasize each syllable to make his half-drunk mouth cooperate and make himself understood, and he saw a flash in Brady’s eyes.
“Don’t,” he growled.
Nick shrugged, his beer sloshing a little in his glass. “It’s my turn to pick and your turn to answer. I pick Jagr.”
“Fuck me…” Brady looked to the ceiling and mouthed something to the water stains there before turning back to Nick. “That is completely based on where he is. Pittsburgh? Underrates the hell out of him because we’ve got our Lord and Savior Lemieux still around to take all the credit. I’m not saying Lemieux doesn’t deserve a lot of credit, but he’s also taking Jagr’s fair share with it. Here? He’s underrated. He still performed well for you, you fucking assholes had too high of a standard and were looking for an excuse to crucify him.”
Nick nodded along solemnly, realized all he was doing was staring at Brady’s lips move, and tried very hard to pay attention to the actual words. Right, right, they were talking about hockey. This was super important.
Luckily, Brady didn’t seem to notice that Nick’s mind had wandered; he was still ranting on Jagr’s behalf.
“Teams like the Devils and Panthers pulled him in and overrated him, thinking he would be able to make them Cup contenders. If Ovechkin in his prime wasn’t enough to get the Caps a Cup, what was Jagr going to do that late in his career? You’ve got teams like Calgary who completely fucking underrated him.”
God, he’s cute, Nick thought and bit the inside of his cheek to keep from leaning in and going full heart-eyes.
“And now he’s back in the Czech Republic, where he is universally loved and overrated. You know they had signs saying ‘The King Has Returned’ when he came back to play for them? They’re selling out games for low-level teams in small rinks that can’t handle those types of crowds just because people want to see him. And these areaway games, they’re not even the home games for his team.”
