] All across the country, on frozen backyard ponds, community rinks and in state-of-the-art arenas, Canadians are playing and watching our national sport: hockey.
] The game is invariably tied to our collective sense of what it means to be Canadian and is perhaps our most identifiable icon.
[WHY]
] teamwork, resourcefulness, tenacity, humility and triumph -- are the principles Canadians try to uphold on the world stage, and as individuals.
] All hockey season long, fans gather around televisions at home or in pubs to watch "the national drama" unfold. And it only intensifies when the playoffs begin.
] Special games, such as the Winter Olympics or the 1972 Summit Series, are even more cause for excitement. In 2002, more than 6 million Canadians tuned in to see the women's hockey team win the gold medal at the Winter Olympics; 10 million tuned in to see the men's team do the same three days later.
“The winters of my childhood were long, long seasons. We lived in three places -- the school, the church and the skating-rink -- but our real life was on the skating-rink