Hockey Time!!!!!

[Former Member]

Not to say that cricket and soccer are unimportant, but over the weekend, Canada won the World Junior Hockey championship for the fourth straight year.

Rob

[Former Member]

Jan 1 2009 the Chicago BlackHawks played the Detroit Redwings outside at Wrigley Field (that's right, the Cubs Baseball stadium) After that they opened it up as a regular skating rink for a few days. How cool is that !

I think this is the 2nd year of the Outside Hockey Classic. Last year it was in Pittsburgh

[Former Member]

>

> Jan 1 2009 the Chicago BlackHawks played the Detroit Redwings outside at Wrigley Field (that's right, the Cubs Baseball stadium) After that they opened it up as a regular skating rink for a few days. How cool is that !
> 
> I think this is the 2nd year of the Outside Hockey Classic. Last year it was in Pittsburgh

That's very UScentric of you Bill. The first outdoor NHL game in many many years was played in Edomton Alberta on Nov 22, 2003 between the Edmonton Oilers and Montreal Canadiens:

http://www.free-press-release.com/news/200901/1230843077.html

I suppose you'll next say that the telephone was invented by an American

Rob

[David]

I got a good laugh at the reference to field hockey. My daughter played in high school for a number of years. I remember taking my son who was 11 at the time to the first game. After about 10 minutes he was totally bored and said "This is no fun like the hockey on TV. They don't get to push each other down."

[Former Member]

"This is no fun like the hockey on TV. They don't get to push each other down."

Funny -:) But a proof that TV is corrupting our children -;)

Greetings,

Blag.

[Former Member]

>

> I got a good laugh at the reference to field hockey. My daughter played in high school for a number of years. I remember taking my son who was 11 at the time to the first game. After about 10 minutes he was totally bored and said "This is no fun like the hockey on TV. They don't get to push each other down."

Usually it's the other way around. My son played hockey for a number of years. Each Saturday we would all have to get up early (before noon) and drive him out and watch for an hour or so. They were taught body checking at an early age, but my daughter was still bored.

Rob

[Former Member]

before noon? Lucky you!

I get to bring my kid to his hockey practices every Saturday at 7am! and sometime Sunday at 8am...

This sport is fun, is fast and is really cool (obviously, ice is cool!)

[Former Member]

Cool! Great for them and great for Canada! -:D

Greetings,

Blag.

[Former Member]

Make that 5 years in a row!!!!!

Rob

[Former Member]

Is that Field Hockey or the other kind (NHL in the United States)?

[Former Member]

Field hockey? Field hockey??!!

This is Canada - land of the midnight sun, Mounties and snow and ice!

Actually, most of the players have been drafted, but do not yet play in the NHL.

Rob

[Former Member]

Only caught the info on the web, the games haven't started here yet on the "international" channels I get through cable.

[Former Member]

Of course I'm more of an NHL fan myself often caught between 3 teams Red Wings (lived in Detroit for 2 yrs - could not help but be sucked in), Blackhawks (love the city) and Lightening (from Florida) and can't see most because I live in Germany LOL

[Former Member]

Sorry Craig - hope I didn't ruin the ending for you.

You were lucky you didn't live in Toronto. There are probably more hockey fans here than anywhere else in the world and we have to put up with one of the consistently worst teams.

So we get a bit more excited about the Juniors.

Rob

[Former Member]

Not ruined at all I only causually glance at the Juniors.

[KjetilKilhavn]

>

> This is Canada - land of the midnight sun, Mounties and snow and ice!

Hey you - it is Norway that is the land of the midnight sun! There's no-one living north of the arctic circle in Canada, is there? Fair enough, you are only second to Russia in terms of size - but don't bully us small countries.

For those who hasn't picked up the news yet - the woman who won the compound division World Cup finals is married to a Norwegian... that's all we can brag about

[Former Member]

Well, there are people living north of the Arctic Circle in Canada, but not many. If I recall correctly, the Gulf Stream makes its way north and warms up the Scandinavian countries.

Maybe this explains why their hockey teams are lethargic.

Rob

[KjetilKilhavn]

>

> Well, there are people living north of the Arctic Circle in Canada, but not many. If I recall correctly, the Gulf Stream makes its way north and warms up the Scandinavian countries.

>

> Maybe this explains why their hockey teams are lethargic.

As Sweden and Denmark are also part of Scandinavia your statement(s) are not quite correct. Yes, Norway in particular has relatively warm climate thanks to the Gulf Stream. However, the Swedes have kicked your butt in hockey often enough - so their hockey team deserves better mentioning. I have even seen Norway beat Canada (private match, so it barely counts - I'm sure your players had spent the previous night in bars and chasing Norwegian girls) at a game where I had showed up with a Canadian flag to cheer your boys on. What an embarassing evening, my friends reminded me about it for months...

You are sadly spot-on about the Norwegian ice-hockey team though - but it isn't due to the climate. There simply are not many ice rinks in Norway. We used to play hockey on the lakes when I was a kid, but the nearest ice rink was 30 km away, so I ended up in archery most kids unfortunately end up playing football. Nowadays there's hardly any frozen lakes (but hey - I can't prove to George W. that there is global warming), so playing hockey for kids where I lived up is not really an option but for the most eager. Strangely though, even if we have had only four curling rinks in Norway as far as I know, while you have thousands, we have won titles in this event.

I'll acknowledge you as kings of hockey (and caribou) as long as you leave us the midnight sun (and reindeer)