Good Evening and Welcome to Hockey Night in Canada

My Dad once said to me, if you ever wanted to invade Canada, do it on a Saturday night during hockey season. I always thought that this was his idea of a joke but in all honesty he's right. If you wanted to conquer our fair country, do it during Hockey Night in Canada when everyone is indoors glued to their sets and you're assured of a quick victory. For you see, hockey for us is more than just a sport, it's a way of life.

Two of my favourite Canadian writers, Will and Ian Ferguson, said this about Canadians and hockey. "Hockey matters to Canadians. Canadians care deeply. Anaheim vs. Nashville. San Jose vs. Phoenix. Who will win? Who will lose? Who would possibly care one way or another? Canadians, that's who."

My most vivid memories from when I was a kid growing up in small town Ontario, are of hockey. My sister and I learnt how to skate at a very young age, like all the other kids we knew. One of the reasons for this was so that we would have the opportunity to play hockey. At a grass roots level hockey has major support. Businesses in the community sponsor the local teams giving them the money to rent ice time, pay for uniforms and anything else they might need. Parents get up at 6am to take their kids to practice before school and flood the back yard in winter so they have somewhere to train. That's where Wayne Gretzky started playing. One of Canada's foremost players trained in his parent's backyard.



Hockey is such a major passion we practice it year round, on the ice in winter and in the streets in the summer. Ball hockey is just as popular as the winter game. My cousin Andrew, a great hockey player in his youth, still plays with the kids in his neighbourhood. He teaches them to play and helps them keep up their skills in readiness for the winter season. He wants to help these kids to keep the knowledge and love of the game alive. And it's not just the kids who love to play. My uncle and his friends who are in their sixties still rent ice time at midnight when the kids aren't around so they can have a chance to hit the puck around.

Hockey is all pervasive in our culture. It's on TV, in literature, and music. Hockey players are more than just mere celebrities; they're heroes, people that we all look up to. One of Canada's biggest coffee and doughnut chains was owned and named after a hockey player, Tim Horton. Not only a great player, but a man with great taste in doughnuts. We even have a whole day dedicated to hockey. CBC's Hockey Day in Canada devotes its entire programming day to the sport, leading up to a tripleheader of NHL games featuring all the Canadian teams. Hockey Night in Canada has been consistently the highest rated Canadian TV show since it first aired in the 1960's and its theme tune is also one of the most recognisable pieces of music for most Canadians.

Hockey has had such an impact on people's lives that one man wrote a very famous story about it. Roch Carrier, a French Canadian writer, wrote a story called 'The Hockey Sweater' which I think best explains just how we feel about our teams. It's about Carrier's childhood in the village of Ste. Justine in Quebec. For them, life centred around school, church, and the hockey rink, and every boy's hero was Montreal Canadiens hockey legend Maurice Richard. When he finally outgrows his beloved Montreal Canadiens sweater, his mother sends away to the Sears Company for a new one. Much to his horror, he is sent a Toronto Maple Leafs sweater; his teams most dreaded and hated foes. He cannot face his friends, fearing ridicule.

Stan Rogers one of Canada's most prolific song writers, even wrote a song about hockey. The song is called Flying and is an allegory but also the true story of a third round NHL hopeful who once coached Wayne Gretzky and now coaches little leaguers and sells saunas. The song tells about the passion and competition to become a professional hockey player but also about the bitter disappointed of injury in the game.

Hockey like most sports has become a mass money maker and this has to an extent damaged the game. To win you need money and in winning you make more money. In the 1980's and 90's American teams brought in players that they called enforcers, who would target the star player on the opposing team and try and take him out. This has become the norm in the NHL now. The winners make the money and the team with the most money gets the best players. The commercial aspect has damaged the Canadian game. We have a very small league in comparison to the USA and we don't have the same amounts of money to put into our teams. Canadian players want to be paid like their American counter parts and in the leagues attempt to do so it's almost become bankrupt. My dad recalled to me how in the 1950's and 60's when he was a kid, commercials during games were transparent so that you didn't miss any of the plays. Nothing could interfere with the game. In my mind that's the way it should be. But no, these days the games stop for commercials instead of the other way around. The referees wait for a signal that the commercial break is over before they start up play again. The money has corrupted this beautiful sport. The numbers of people going to watch hockey has dropped as well but this has more to do with the price of tickets in the NHL and not the love of the game.

To see just how important hockey really is to us, you just have to look at the events of the last few years. Leading up to the start of the 2004-2005 season Canadian hockey was in crisis. For the first time since 1919, the season was cancelled as disagreements over pay and cost efficiency led to the worst case scenario. The fans had been betrayed by the very players and teams they supported. Across the country people went into mourning fearing that with no season and the players not being able to train due to stoppage of work, it would never be restarted and that this might be the end of Canadian hockey. Hockey Night in Canada, having no games to show began rerunning old ones so that people could get their hockey fix each Saturday. People began going to the local school and semi pro matches, because you see, Canadians don't care if it's NHL or kids who are playing. They just love the game. After long months of fearing the worst, they finally came to an agreement and the season was saved. My uncle said that at least some good had come out of all this - the Toronto Maple Leafs had had an undefeated season. The cancellation reinforced in the minds of the players, team owners and fans, just how important hockey really is to us. They're even considering implementing new rules to enhance the skill and flow of the game, bringing it back to the way it used to be before the money became the focus.

I think that one of the reasons why we Canadians are so passionate about hockey is because it is ours. We invented it and made it what it is and we have a personal investment in its future. There are many reasons why it's important to me. It's not just that it's a Canadian game and that I'm proud to be a fan of such an amazing sport. Putting aside the money, the NHL, and even Hockey Night, for me it will always be about family. It's about my dad getting up at 6am to take me to practice. It's about supporting your community. Hockey brings us together as a nation, sharing in our team's triumphs and failures. It is a mass cultural experience that has lasted for generations and will continue for generations to come. There is no doubt in my mind that hockey is and always will be the passion that unites us all.

What more can I say eh?

article by - Emma Crofts. © 2007 CanadianCulture.com all rights reserved.

Send comments to Emma -