I just spent ten -- no wait, scratch that -- 20 minutes watching ESPN drool over LeBron James’ Thursday night return to Cleveland. Not really much of a basketball fan, I’m not really sure why I was watching, but I guess since I’m a sports fan and an American, I’m hard-wired to turn on SportsCenter whenever there’s nothing else on TV. And since I don’t like People’s Court or One Life To Life, ESPN it is.
Ottawa’s LeBron: Senators Fans, Canadian Media Prepare To ‘Welcome’ Dany Heatley
So I’m watching, and I couldn’t help but notice the anchors, John Buccigross and Linda Cohn. Noted hockey people. In fact, I sat next to Buccigross and his kids at a college hockey game in Connecticut one time.
“How much are they hating this?” I kept asking myself.
ESPN’s money feeds their kids, so I’m sure they don’t mind it too much, but still. There’s an almost identical story in the NHL today and they can’t even give it a whisper.
In Canada, though, they're certainly talking about it. Dany Heatley's return to tonight has every bit the hype in Ottawa as LeBron's return has in Cleveland. Don't believe me? Check today's Ottawa Sun, complete with a life size crybaby mask!
Heatley was just a year into his six-year contract with the Ottawa Senators back in June 2009, but late that season, he became unhappy with his role and ice time under then-new head coach Cory Clouston.
He demanded a trade to get out of Ottawa. Then he turned down a trade to hockey-crazy Edmonton. Here’s Terry Jones of the Sun, writing in August 2009, as quoted by Bird Watchers Anonymous:
There are no mirrors in Dany Heatley’s world. My way or the highway. And my road map.
There’s no empathy for the people in Ottawa who bought the tickets and wore his jersey, no feeling for the fans in Edmonton who spent all July left twisting in the wind while their community took another image hit from a hockey player who wanted the bright lights and/or warmer weather of some larger, non-Canadian, no-pressure market.
“I regret the way it’s been this summer. It’s been a tough summer. It hasn’t been fair, especially to Edmonton and Ottawa. But that’s the way it went,” said Heatley.
Yeah, that’s the way it went, Dany. It’s all about you. Not about anybody else anywhere else.
“It’s nothing to do with Edmonton personally. Edmonton is a great hockey city. It has nothing to do with Edmonton. We want options. I need options to make the right decision. To this date there’s been one option and only one option,” he said, adding that Edmonton wasn’t on his initial list.
Eventually, three months later, Heatley agreed to a trade with San Jose. Milan Michalek and Jonathan Cheechoo came back to Ottawa in that September 2009 deal. Now, it's been over a year since Heatley's departure, and Ottawa's had a lot of time to think about it all.
While they weren’t sure about the return on the trade at the time, they really aren’t sure about the return of the trade now. Michalek is a nice two-way forward who’s a bit of a streaky scorer, but then there’s Cheechoo, who only played 61 games for the Senators before leaving town.
But then there's Jonathan Cheechoo, or the guy that was many Senators fans hope for filling in some of Heatley's goal-scoring touch.
Everyone knows how Cheechoo exploded to 56 goals following San Jose's acquisition of Joe Thornton. Cheechoo loved to shoot and Thornton loved to pass, so it seemed like a natural combination, and it was a rare moment of immediate and pure chemistry between two players. Before that, Cheechoo was a grinder with a scoring touch who managed to put up 28 goals while playing mostly with Mike Ricci as his center. And after that, it was double sports hernia surgery, and then, well, it was pretty much nothing.
So what happened to the other goal scorer in the Dany Heatley trade? It's kind of like old times, as Cheechoo is the leading scorer for the Sharks -- the Worcester Sharks, that is.
At the end of the day, an enigmatic star leaves your city in the dust, while embarrassing your organization, his ex-teammates and even another team in the process. You don’t get much in return, either. Sounds a lot like a certain basketball player...
Okay, it’s not an exact comparison. After all, Heatley was only in Ottawa for a season, and that city’s economy was never based on him. Cleveland fans are probably a bit more preoccupied and dramatic over LeBron than Ottawa fans are over Heatley, too. But the similarities are evident, and the reactions of their ex-fans tonight will likely be pretty similar, too.
I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen in Cleveland with LeBron tonight (like I said, not much of a basketball guy), but if I had to guess, I’d say that it won’t quite live up to the hype. This stuff never does, no matter the sport. It’s all just a sideshow.
A game will be played, there will be a winner and a loser, and after, everybody will go home and move on with their lives. Tonight in Ottawa, Dany Heatley will be booed each time he touches the puck as a hockey-loving Canadian city gets its chance at catharsis.
It won’t be a giant mob, but that won’t keep Heatley off the cover of the Sun tomorrow, nor will it keep LeBron’s night in Cleveland off the top of SportsCenter, will it?
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