Begininning with the letter "H"

Today’s word of the day is Ice Hockey or simply put “Hockey” (in countries where it is frequently played) and is: (1) a team sport played on ice that originated in Canada around 1800. (2) most popular in areas that are sufficiently cold for natural reliable seasonal ice cover, such as Canada, the northern United States, the Nordic countries and Russia. (3) The official national winter sports of Canada.

I thought today’s word should be about the sport that is as Canadian as the Maple Leaf, Don Cherry, Wayne Gretzky (before Janet and her aerobics video), The Tragically Hip and Molson’s beer. Anywhere you search for information on this word, the one thing that is constant is that this is a true Canadian born sport and passion. How then did we end up in the NHL with only six current teams compared to the twenty four that are based in US cities? If this is truly our countries sport why is starting to feel like it has obtained dual citizenship but prefers the US over its true nationality? Has the sport gone along with the Liberal Party, with the true leader, the NHL picking and choosing when to appear interested in building or even continuing a future for the sport on its own home ground? How do teams like the Quebec Nordics and the Winnipeg Jets get whisked to the US so quickly (no “seven year rule” there) but when ironically the city that the Jets relocate to (Phoenix) cannot support the sport, someone like Jim Balsillie cannot move it back to the country where it truly belongs? As well, how the heck do cities like San Joes, Los Angeles, Dallas, Anaheim, Raleigh, Tampa and some other place called Sunrise (another Florida team) even get awarded franchise’s when they don’t even have snow?

The real risk that we as Canadians run here is that while the NHL stands for National Hockey League, in what Nation does its interest truly lay? If people like Jim Balsillie stop fighting for us and for what’s truly right, we may just end up with the official winter sport but no professional teams in the game of “Hockey”.