Monday, January 21, 2013

The best game you can name.



To mark the end of the NHL lockout and the belated start of the professional hockey season in North America, here is a classic of musical Canadiana from Stompin' Tom Connors. Much as many baseball fans declared themselves to be thoroughly disgusted and disillusioned following the 1994-95 Major League Baseball strike, one can now hear many hockey fans expressing bitter dislike of the NHL, the NHL Players' Association, and the business and commercial aspects of professional hockey in general. Perhaps I lack the sort of high-minded scruple that can lead to such bitterness, but I'm simply glad that the lockout is over and that I can now look forward to future broadcasts of Hockey Night in Canada and - assuming that I can act quickly enough to get one of the few remaining affordable tickets - a Leafs home game at the Air Canada Centre.

As French Canadian writer Roch Carrier reminds us in a bit of prose reproduced on the back of the Canadian five-dollar bill, winter can be a long, long season. Whatever we might think of costly disputes between franchise owners and professional athletes, let us be thankful that we have diversions like ice hockey to help us get through months of cold and darkness on the way to spring and summer. AMDG.

3 Comments:

At 1/21/2013 6:17 PM, Blogger Michelle said...

I am not a particular hockey fan, but my mother was a long time Chicago Black Hawks fan, and when I was young she and my father had a standing date on Saturday nights to watch the games on TV. If I think of winter Saturday nights when I was a child, it's the flickering black and white images, the biting cold Midwest wind and Bobby Orr that come to mind.

So for the sake of such fans, I was glad of the resolution!

 
At 1/21/2013 10:41 PM, Blogger Lynda said...

Saturday was a great night for Leafs fans when we won the first game of the season against Montreal. Now let's hope the Leafs can continue to win!

 
At 1/21/2013 11:22 PM, Blogger Joseph Koczera, S.J. said...

They weren't so lucky tonight, but the last few minutes were exciting...

 

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