The World Is Prepared To Boycott Russian Hockey

Almost every day is a tradeoff between satisfaction and punchbowl turds. Find a great parking spot in front of the place you want to go? There’s a ticket on the windshield when you return. Good work review from the boss? Unpaid overtime the night before a holiday weekend. Winning at the card table? The last hand brings a bad beat that reallocates your winnings to someone else. When Devin Cooley received congratulations for a good game in goal for the Calgary Flames two years ago, he famously said, “Nothing’s really gonna matter. We’re all gonna die.” Even now, he is among the most famous hockey players to non-hockey fans for that fascinating worldview. That fame, and that darkly realistic approach, didn’t prevent him from getting injured last week.

But Tuesday was that rarest of events—a grand day in politics. The reigning goblins got routed in nearly every way and seemingly every race, although meat slab impersonator Tommy Tuberville still won his Alabama governor’s race and Mark Teixeira narrowly won his congressional race. It was great on its face, and also for all the devastated expressions that came with those losses; it is a good day when all the worst people are sad. Very nearly as satisfying, the Canadian government committed itself to a decision that made premier Mark Carney look as good as the election down here must have made him feel.

Carney stood strong in the face of Canada’s national addiction, hockey, to tell the Court of Arbitration for Sport to take a hike on its decision to allow Russia to play in the World Juniors Tournament that begins the day after Christmas in Edmonton and Red Deer, Alberta. Nearly half the 16 nations scheduled to play in the world championships in Germany in May have also said they won’t participate if the Russians are allowed.