'More Saskatchewan, less Stockholm': an Edmonton journalist gets away with it

Here’s exactly what he wrote in his post above:

The depth of a club cannot be all talented players from Europe (…) [The Canucks] need more Saskatchewan and less Stockholm. – Mark Spector

In the comments, this caused quite a stir. People compared Spector to Don Cherry and begged the journalist to delete his publication. Xenophobic comments like that have no place. Quite ironic for a guy with the Ukrainian flag at the end of his X username.

One thing’s for sure, he misspoke. It’s true that European ice is sometimes bigger and there’s less contact in general than in North America. But we shouldn’t generalize, and big European players do exist. The proof: there are some in Vancouver. I’m thinking of Nikita Zadorov, among others.

It’s true that the club’s Swedes – Elias Pettersson, Nils Hoglander, Nils Aman and Elias Lindholm – aren’t the most physical players, but the North Americans in the pack – J.T. Miller, Quinn Hughes and Conor – are. Miller, Quinn Hughes and Conor Garland aren’t either… I’d love to include the Canadians, but only two of them played yesterday: Carson Soucy and Phillip Di Giuseppe.

As for the Oilers, 14 players in yesterday’s line-up are from Canada. Nasty difference!

But that doesn’t explain Spector’s comments, which I’m sure will be deleted soon.

In Brief

– Worst job in the world: Lightning scout.

– With good reason.

– Well-deserved.

– Too bad.

– The Alouettes remain on 98.5.