Our Game The History of Hockey in Canada

All these years after hockey was invented, we can truthfully say that the game has come to reflect much of what it means to be a Canadian. Its players are strong, determined, skillful and eager to face a good challenge. Many of our top stars are among the very best in the world at what they have chosen to do. We see and we play the game all year round, on organized teams in leagues or with friends on community and backyard rinks, until well after dark on neighbourhood streets that are covered with the snowy blanket of winter or the colourful leaves of autumn. The amateur game, played by boys and girls, often on the same teams, is alive and well. You see it at every arena -- parking lots full on Saturday morning, moms and dads hauling big equipment bags into the rink, then huddling in the stands with a cup of hot coffee to stay warm while they cheer on their sons and daughters. Return to these same arenas late at night and you’ll find leagues of "oldtimers," grown men age 60, or more, who love hockey too much to leave it behind. We write songs, plays and poems about hockey. It is celebrated in movies and books. We play it on frozen ponds and lakes, wearing the sweaters of our favourite teams, pretending we’re Sidney Crosby, the Pittsburgh Penguins’ young talent from Nova Scotia who many say will be the NHL’s next huge star. Or maybe we’re Wayne Gretzky, Jarome Iginla, Mats Sundin, Vincent Lecavalier, women’s team stars Hayley Wickenheiser, Cassie Campbell, Kim St-Pierre, or a legend of long ago. We keep scrapbooks and collect hockey cards, slap tennis balls against our garage doors, play it in video games and, sometimes, in our dreams. The game has endured since the days before there was the internet, television and even radio, through two world wars, a deadly flu and the Great Depression. In 1994, the elected leaders of our country finally recognized what everyone had known for a long time: that hockey is Canada. With the National Sports of Canada Act, hockey was acknowledged by Parliament as this nation’s official winter sport. Like us, our government sees that hockey is a thread that runs from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific, a sport that links us as Canadians. The Act does make us think about a great game and the many people who have made it so. It reminds us of street hockey and the Stanley Cup, of heroes the game has known for more than 100 years. It leads us back to the days of long ago, to the recollections of our parents and grand-parents, and into our libraries to discover more. The National Sports of Canada Act reminds us of hockey’s place in our culture and our hearts. And because the game is woven into so much of our culture, studying the history of hockey is, in many ways, studying the history of Canada -- with a glorious past and a very exciting future, just like the country it calls home. This is the story of hockey in Canada.Stubbs, Dave is the author of 'Our Game The History of Hockey in Canada' with ISBN 9781897073278 and ISBN 1897073275.