Jordan Eberle: Canada’s Sungod

Austin Kent
December 20, 2010

Jordan Eberle is a 20-year-old icon, celebrated nationwide not for what he’ll eventually do (a lot), but what he’s already done (even more). An international hockey hero who’s accomplished more in the past two years than most of us will ever accomplish in our lives. So how come he isn’t recognized as such more often?

In modern-day Canada, Jordan Eberle means more to citizens than the Queen. He means more to national pride than the RCMP, bilingualism and twoonies combined. The thing is, those who’ve benefited the most from his contributions to their country are often blissfully unaware of the fact that it was he, more than anyone else, who laid the foundation on which they have built and maintained their national identity.

Eberle’s heroics over the course of the past two winters have played such an instrumental role in the self-worth of an entire country, one that prides itself on not just hockey players but loyalty to their hockey program, that the magnitude of his brilliance is often difficult to grasp.

Like the internet, Alanis Morrissette or the life-sustaining abilities of the sun itself, Canadians have neglected Jordan Eberle; failed to genuinely appreciate something so absolutely crucial to everyday life, especially in the north. Without him, without any of those, it would never be the same.

It’s obvious and almost comical how Canadians pride themselves on their traditionally innate ability to dominate the hockey realm. Even more so when you consider that it was American defenseman John Carlson who put an end to Canada’s streak of consecutive World Junior championships in the gold medal game last January.

But the relationship between Canadians and the sport of hockey is deeper than tournament wins or success. It’s deeper than the percentage of Canadian-born players in the NHL, gold medals won in comparison to those of the United States, or whether or not Sidney Crosby is the all-around better player than Alex Ovechkin. Though frequently misinterpreted, the relationship between Canadians and the sport of hockey is one built not on a tradition of success but of emotional investment.

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Alex Ovechkin is significantly more physically imposing than Sidney Crosby and every bit as skilled, the United States have shown such an unprecedented ability to develop athletes that it’s only a matter of time before they lead the world in any sport they genuinely set their mind to, and European-born hockey players are continuing to steal jobs from the Canadians for whom they would have previously been a birthright. But no country will ever be as passionate about the sport as the people of Canada. It’s why hockey is Canada’s sport.

Without something to which Canadians can be irrationally drawn, there is no Canadian patriotism, it’s that simple. As far as entertainment exports are concerned, the pickin’s are slim. And without relevant hockey, there’s nothing citizens from the western shores of Vancouver Island to the east coast of St. John’s would be irrationally drawn to.

Relevant hockey, fueled by the adrenaline-pumping heroics of the young men charged with the task of defending the country’s on-ice honor, would not exist as we know it in 2010 without late-game offensive surges and game-tying theatrics, without heart-stopping final-minute miracles drawing international powerhouses into do-or-die overtime periods, or without sworn archrivals crushingly stripped of peace of mind as the unforgiving score clock refuses to let them off the hook against a relentless Canadian attack.

And none of those would have happened over the course of the past two years without Jordan Eberle.

Eberle’s Canadians lost to the United States in the gold medal game of 2010, but not before he’d potted a pair of goals in the final three minutes of the game, forcing an extra frame and obliterating the mental stability of a desperate United States team in the process. Both Eberle goals were negated by a streaking John Carlson in the subsequent overtime period, though, and it was the first time since 2004 that Canada had failed to win gold.

Before Carlson had stymied Canada’s bid for six, however, the Saskatoon crowd had erupted in sheer pandemonium as beleaguered American goaltender Jack Campbell looked on in crushing horror, his two-goal cushion slipping away like a sinking ship to the bottom of the ocean. Eberle had managed to beat him twice, to strike again and again with less than a handful of minutes remaining in a way that only Eberle could.

A year prior it was different. Canada won it all in 2009, but not before their heroic leader knocked home a bouncing puck from John Tavares with 5.4 seconds left in a semifinal matchup with Russia. The last-second goal tied the teams at five, allowing his teammates to avoid devastation and continue their quest for a fifth-straight gold. The overtime period went scoreless but Canada prevailed in the shootout, where Eberle notched the game winner.

In modern World Junior history, Eberle’s legendary composure is as synonymous with the national program as the maple leaf itself, the country has literally gone only so far as he has taken it. Yet, it’s easy for the casual majority to forget that almost every single time Canada thrived, it was Eberle who powered the triumph, his individual contributions shrouded in the success of the whole.

Will somebody step up in 2011 to relieve Eberle, the unknown Regina-born teen who singlehandedly ensured not that the country won the World Junior tournament, per se, but at least didn’t lose it? The attitude surrounding Canadian hockey in 2011 would be indistinguishably different if he hadn’t done what he did over the course of the past two years, maybe even permanently.

Though Canadians will go on to live vicariously through their World Junior teams in the future for as long as the program is worth the emotional investment, they’ll always look back at the teams of the past.

Though they too are worth recognition in their own right, it’s important to acknowledge that without one supernatural young man in particular, the vicarious lives of Canadian hockey fans would have been cut tragically short in both 2009 and 2010.

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Check out TheGoodPoint.com’s Jordan Eberle World Junior video montage, courtesy of TSN.

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The Author:

Austin Kent

Austin Kent is the Editor-in-Chief of The Good Point and the Sports.ws Network.