The "Canada-U.S." Thing
Several good storylines emerged in the long, empty days leading up to the Stanley Cup Final: Senators' coach Bryan Murray is battling a monster he helped create during two years as general manager in Anaheim. Scott and Rob Niedermayer hope to be the first brothers to share a Stanley cup since Brent and Duane Sutter in 1983.
But with a Canadian-based team facing off against a sunny southern franchise for the third straight season, the favorite story by far has been the "Canada-U.S. thing," as Ducks GM Brian Burke puts it.
Canadians never tire of flaunting their hockey devotion and comparing it to the game's bush-league status in most of the USA. The last week has seen dozens of stories with headlines like Californians Cool to Game Played on Ice, or labeling the Ducks an "invisible underdog". But the facts are what they are. The Great Hockey Divide is perhaps best illustrated by Mark Spector of the National Post, who recalls the fever surrounding the Calgary Flames three years ago, when they made a stirring run to the brink of a championship:
In 2004, at an establishment called The French Maid in Calgary, a nude dancer named Tammy Everick lamented of the local men: "Women are not in their eyes right now. They are a disturbance, really just getting in the way." Even the naked ones.By comparison, the best a team like the Ducks can hope for is to carve out a "sliver of the pie" in California's busy sports scene.
On game nights her colleague, Mary Jane, had taken to dancing only during intermissions...
American hockey fans must tire of this constant reminder that they are the game's poor cousins. They can take heart from Brian Burke, who notes that by his Ducks are far more Canadian than the Ottawa Senators. The regular Anaheim roster includes two Europeans and three Americans. Otherwise, it's pure Canuck, a roomful of guys from northern towns like Strathroy, Swift Current, Regina, and even Ottawa.
Comments
I think it just goes to show how deluded and unsustainable the current NHL model is. Why is it that there are so many teams in american cities where no one cares about hockey, and almost NO teams at all in Canada where everyone loves the game? This is just plain wrong. I think what is needed is an alternative Canadian-only national league, so that hometown fans in smaller cities across this country can have a team to cheer for.
I agree with u, james. We need a Canadian only national league. Let the Americans watch boring old baseball, NASCAR(like NASCAR’s a sport!)watching paint dry. Have more teams in the country that cares for the sport. Move Nashville to Winnepeg or Kitchener. Let us have our sport back! The worse thing to happen to NHL hockey was the expansion to the sunbelt in the US. NHL executives sold out for the almighty US dollar and ruined the league. Too many US based teams where no one gives a damn!
GO, SENS, GO! Roast duck anyone!
Whoa - now wait a minute here. Don’t put all of us Americans in one lump when it comes to hockey. Having been raised in Detroit, I have spent more years watching HNIC then I care to admit. I go back to rooting for the Red Wings even before they were known as the “Dead Things”. I remember the Atlanta Flames. Myself, almost all of my friends, and my family live and die by “The Season”.
As far as a Canadian only league - well - you know as well as I that the money is south of the border. You might have your own league, but the top players would still be playing for US teams.
To me the real problem is the INSANE schedule. Every team should play every other team at least twice - once at home and once away.
And by the way, it is taking time, but in those US southern and western cities - you find more and more interest in the game. Shoot, so many Canadian snow birds there, it’s a wonder it took this long to get the fever going there.
Thank you, thank you, thank you Bill. Although I did not grow up with hockey in Texas, it is here now and I can hardly wait from one game to the next. Those I pal around with are the same way. Several of us take a shuttle bus from a Pub to the arena and you would think that there were no other sports in Texas BUT hockey. We know that we are in the minority because of king football but we are loud and proud of our team and the whole sport in general.
You Canadians go get your own league if that’s what makes you happy but like Bill said the money is here and that’s where the high $$ players will come. As for your comment KATHY: to let you have YOUR sport back, please study up and tell us who the original six teams were and how many of them were from Canada? Nuff said.
I love Hockey. Hockey is my drug of choice. No matter what I feel like during the day, when I walk in the arena everything is O.K. and I feel great! There just are not enough hockey related events to satisfy me and I go to everything I can find. LONG LIVE HOCKEY IN THE U.S.A.!!!!!
ok, more teams were in the original six from the u.s than from canada… whos got the better national team… whos got teh cup (ducks.. from the states yet a mostly canadian team)… who came up with the sport… i think overall its a pretty well known fact that canada has been, is, and always will be hockey king… but we’ll let you americans play too if you pay our guys enough money. haha. i definatly agree with a simply canadian team, there is definatly the hockey fan base to do it, and the skill level of hockey players who dont have the ability to go to the camps and get scouted for the nhl, give us a canadian team, even for a trial year, and then you’ll see some hockey on the brew! way to go ducks! and another thing, ducks win it with only 2 americans on the roster, 3 europeans, then rest are canadians… OUR GAME!!
Once again, there must be some reason the Canadians are coming to the U.S. to play. We have the $$ for them and they seem to win the Cup pretty often here. Of course, if you look at the place of birth of a lot of the players you will see it does say somewhere in Canada. But, many, many of them have become U.S. citizens. Those stats aren’t readily available when looking at rosters. Again, I love hockey and I love Canada but what I don’t love is the U.S.A. bashing being done by the Canadians. It is NOT YOUR sport. It is a sport for all and if there weren’t so many bashers maybe there would be a chance for it to grow even more popular in the U.S.A. Believe me, I wish I lived close enough to be able to attend games in Canada but I would never forsake my U.S.A. team.