DANKOCHIK’S DRAFTINGS: A devastating loss, and sports fandom

When I was 10 years old, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, good for the first time lost a Grey Cup they had no business losing to Calgary.

I was devastated.

Canada’s loss to the United States in men’s hockey at the Olympics turned me right back into that 10-year-old.

Back in 2002, just before the Bombers broke my heart for the first time, a similar story was playing out in Italy, as their country was eliminated in the World Cup in shocking fashion by South Korea. The player who scored the golden goal that eliminated Italy was playing in Serie A at the time, and was promptly shipped out.

When I first heard that story, I laughed at it. How could one be so impulsive, so silly about international play. A week after Canada’s loss I understand. Connor Hellebuyck’s heroic performance in net for the Americans was so infuriating to me, I wanted the team to trade him.

Luckily for Winnipeg fans, the Jets are run by people less impulsive than me.

I try to read the sports section of the Winnipeg Free Press every day, but I couldn’t even bring myself to open the plastic of the newspaper this week, even as Mike McIntyre brought brilliant, Manitoba-focused coverage from Milan.

Sometimes as a sports reporter you have an instinct to divorce your fandom away from your coverage, but I need to remember the 2026 version of the 10-year-old Cassidy Dankochik is alive today as well, and part of what I write on a weekly basis is for them.