oh, lukey!

it makes me wonder whether the response to sasha would be different if he didn't behave the way he does, wrt online discussions about his humility and conscientiousness and reserve, which are all true qualities he has that also happen to contrast conveniently against the western stereotype of the russian hockey player as being flashier and more prone to selfishness and laziness. specifically thinking about the common refrain that he's so modest, he never celebrates his goals, prefers to credit the teammate who set him up, etc., i always read a thread of relief, even if unconscious, in those comments as if they are pleased to be able to reaffirm his finnishness against the unspoken threat of his russian background. on the other hand as far as i can tell it's not something that comes up in discussion about ethnically finnish (or ethnically swedish in lundy's case) players. like idk lundy and rantanen and aho celebrate goals all the time and people don't accuse them of besmirching the respectability of finnish hockey or whatever. vs last year during i believe the conference finals when sasha celebrated his goals there were jokes (referring to the jatkoaika forum threads) feigning shock and outrage abt his shamelessness and one comment that really stuck out to me about how when sasha scored they were waiting to see if his arms went over his shoulders or if it was "a familiar and safe sasha." and like omgggg it's just a joke omg it's not that deep okay i get it!!!!!!!!! tbh i will probably continue to think the comments r funny and cute too but like there is truth to the fact that sasha would be much more difficult to reconcile within the finnish cultural consciousness if he did not happen to embody exactly the qualities of finnish hockey itself that make him quote unquote safe.