Where have you gone, Wayne Gretzky? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.
In the meantime, a statue of Gretzky would have to do. The puck would drop soon, and outside the main doors to the arena, fans of the Edmonton Oilers swirled around the life-size bronze facsimile of Wayne Gretzky, Canada’s recently tarnished bigger-than-life hero.
“I’d like him to be a little more Canadian,” said Rob Munro, a 43-year-old Oilers fan in a 1980s-era Mark Messier jersey. “I’m not anti-Gretzky, by any stretch. It’s just disappointing.”
Mr. Gretzky, now 64, has long been frozen as an ideal — the ideal athlete, icon and Canadian. “The Great One,” he is still called, having led the Oilers to four Stanley Cup titles in the 1980s. He has stood as a national avatar for talent and decency for decades. “A true champion and gentleman of dedication and character,” reads a plaque at his bronze skates.
Now Mr. Gretzky stands, silently, as a case study for what happens when heroes disappoint — and how quickly even the strongest allegiances can shift when stirred by Trumpian politics.
“You were a great Canadian, but now you are not,” said Matthew Iwanyk, chief operating officer and host of Edmonton Sports Talk. “That is the majority sentiment you will get from Edmontonians.”
It is a case of guilt by association. Mr. Gretzky’s close ties with President Trump, and the perception that he is not standing up for his native country as Canadians feel attacked by their southern neighbor, has altered the way Mr. Gretzky is viewed across the nation.
“As much as we love hockey,” Mr. Iwanyk said, “we love our country more.”
Feelings may be most jumbled in Edmonton and in Brantford, Ontario, Mr. Gretzky’s hometown.
“He’s definitely lost his luster in town,” said Marina Szeman, cheering on her son’s hockey game inside Brantford’s Wayne Gretzky Sports Centre.
Mr. Gretzky has made the United States his primary home since 1988, when he was traded to the Los Angeles Kings. It is still called, simply, “the trade” in Canadian shorthand. It lingers in the Canadian psyche as a cruel bit of resource extraction by the Americans. Now it feels as if Mr. Trump has mined Mr. Gretzky again.
Mr. Gretzky and his wife, the American actress Janet Jones (they married in Edmonton in 1988, a wedding worthy of royals) celebrated with Mr. Trump at an election-night party in November and at January’s inauguration. In between, Mr. Trump joked that Mr. Gretzky could become governor of the 51st state of Canada — a taunt that few north of the border find amusing. Amid it all, a photo surfaced of Mr. Gretzky wearing a white-and-gold Make America Great Again cap.
Then, because this is Canada, came hockey. Last month, with tensions rising between the countries, Canada and the United States played the championship game of the National Hockey League’s “4 Nations Face-Off.” Mr. Gretzky was the honorary captain for the Canadians. While his American counterpart, Mike Eruzione, wore a team jersey, Mr. Gretzky wore a neutral blue suit and was shown on the broadcast giving smiles and a thumbs-up to the U.S. bench.
Canadian fans, who did not see Mr. Gretzky’s pregame presence in Canada’s dressing room, celebrated an overtime win (“You can’t take our country — and you can’t take our game,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau posted on social media) and pounced on Mr. Gretzky.
Mr. Gretzky’s wife spoke up for her husband. “I have never met anyone who is more Proud to be a Canadian, and it has broken his heart to read and see the mean comments,” she wrote on Instagram last week, before deleting the post.
As agitation in Canada intensified, Mr. Gretzky stayed quiet. He did not respond to requests for comment sent through his representatives. But Mr. Trump, whose new tariffs took effect on Tuesday, came to Mr. Gretzky’s defense in a post on social media. That kind of support was not helpful in Canada.
Canadians are rising up against Mr. Trump and his policies. They are boycotting American goods and buying and flying Canadian flags in a burst of national pride. Many coffee shops have stopped offering Americanos or renamed the drink a Canadiano. Some of the loudest communal protests come at hockey games, against American teams.
“We’re probably going to keep booing the American anthem,” Prime Minister Trudeau said on Tuesday, discussing the new tariffs. “But let me tell Americans — we’re not booing you, we’re not booing your teams, we’re not booing your players. We’re booing a policy that is designed to hurt us. And we’re insulted, and we’re angry. But we’re Canadian, which means we’re going to stand up for each other, we’re going to fight, we’re going to win.”
A good number of Canadians are wondering: Whose side is Mr. Gretzky on?
Americans might struggle to understand Mr. Gretzky’s significance in Canada, or why his political leanings matter — especially since he has not lived in Canada since 1988.
“He is the greatest at the sport we care about the most,” Bruce Arthur, a national columnist for The Toronto Star, said. “It’s as simple as that.”
Mr. Gretzky retired as a player in 1999, having spent the last three of his N.H.L. seasons with the New York Rangers, and was quickly enshrined in hockey’s hall of fame. He remains the N.H.L.’s career scoring leader by such a big margin that, if you discounted his 894 goals, he would remain in first because of his 1,963 assists.
In Edmonton, an unassuming 31-year-old named Grant Prete, a lifelong Oilers fan, started an online petition to remove Mr. Gretzky’s name from a short section of freeway that has been called Wayne Gretzky Drive since 1999. It collected more than 10,000 signatures in a week.
After work Mr. Prete sipped on green tea at a Tim Hortons, the ubiquitous Canadian coffee-shop chain named for another hockey player. Mr. Prete is a business development manager for a software company. He has lost good friends in recent days over his role in the Gretzky flap.
“People are allowed to be friends with who they want,” Mr. Prete said. “But I draw the line when it comes to Canada’s sovereignty.”
He and others mentioned something that was treated as mere curiosity until now. In 2009, Mr. Gretzky was awarded Canada’s highest civilian honor, the companion of the Order of Canada. It is believed that he has never come to accept it — more fodder to question Mr. Gretzky’s patriotism.
Does Mr. Gretzky have a unique obligation to stand up for Canada? Or are Canadians putting an unreasonable expectation on a folk hero?
“It’s not that we expect more of him,” Mr. Prete said. “It’s that it stings more.”
Mr. Prete mentioned the “Saturday Night Live” closing two nights earlier, in which Mike Myers, the Canadian actor and former cast member, wore a “Canada is not for sale” T-shirt and mouthed a message: “Elbows up.” It is a hockey reference that means to get tough.
Imagine the swell of pride if Mr. Gretzky made such a gesture, Mr. Prete said.
In Brantford on Sunday, others stood up for Gretzky. “There’s not a more proud Canadian,” said Roger Pamplin, a heavy-equipment driver at a steel plant, waiting outside of his grandson’s hockey game at the Gretzky rink.
Mr. Pamplin noted Mr. Gretzky’s philanthropic work during his career, including hosting celebrity sport tournaments in the community.
On Tuesday, Ontario’s Premier, Doug Ford, also came to Mr. Gretzky’s defense.
“I talked to Wayne the other day, and he was so choked up talking to me,” Mr. Ford told reporters. “He is a patriot. He loves Canada. He never gave up his Canadian passport. So, you know, folks, give the guy a break.”
Outside the hockey arena on Tuesday evening, fans in Oilers jerseys discussed the day’s politics, but most did not blame Mr. Gretzky.
“He doesn’t need to defend himself,” said Jeff Seifert, who wore a Messier jersey and has come to games since the 1980s.
“I’ve always loved the guy, and still do,” said his friend, John Dobrich.
“It’s more classy to not say anything,” Mr. Seifert said.
The game between the Oilers and the Anaheim Ducks began at about the time that Mr. Trump began addressing the U.S. Congress. Oilers fans booed the American national anthem, and one woman used a lull to shout an invective about Mr. Trump. Then the crowd turned the Canadian anthem into a spirited singalong.
Outside, in the cold, stood a version of Mr. Gretzky — a likeness of him, frozen in the 1980s. No one paid him much attention.
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