Gold rush

Wow!

Since my last post on Wednesday, Canada has gone into gold medal overdrive in Vancouver. The women duly beat the USA to claim the hockey gold, making it Canada's most golden Winter Olympics in history, and five further golds have been added in the last 48 hours in speed skating (thrice!), snowboarding and men's curling. The women's curlers missed out in their final against Sweden - whose team seemed to be comprised of the slightly overweight relations of Dr Cameron from House - but nonetheless this is now Canada's most successful Olympics ever, summer or winter.

In fact, if Canada can pick up one more gold, that will bring the total to fourteen, which would be the most golds won at any Winter Olympics by any nation, and there will be one last chance in the final event of the whole beanfeast as the men look to emulate their female counterparts by knocking over the Americans in the hockey final. A Hollywood scriptwriter could hardly have crafted a more fitting finale to the Games, and all that remains now is for the team to play their part and finish the deal.

As you are probably aware, I'm not the greatest hockey fan, but I shall be watching tomorrow regardless and I shall probably be on the edge of my seat from start to finish. There won't be any running into the street if Canada wins as it's -20 outside at the moment and forecast to be even colder tomorrow, but I might allow myself to crack open the maple syrup and cook up a celebratory pancake or two if all goes well.

Not that I need an excuse for pancakes and syrup...

Woe Canada..?

Despite what I was saying about perspective yesterday, Canada's loss to the United States in the Olympic ice hockey was most certainly a devastating blow to the country. Team Canada can still make it to the last eight if they beat Germany on Tuesday - which they should - but the public's faith in their ability to bring home the gold has been severely shaken.

When results are compared to pre-Games predictions it's not been a good Olympics at all for Canada thus far - indeed, the Canadian Olympic Committee admitted this morning that the five year, $117 million 'Own The Podium' program had missed its mark - but Canada still has four golds, and with a realistic prospect of at least four more to come in ice dance, women's hockey and both men's and women's curling, there is every chance of overhauling the record of seven that was set in Salt Lake City in 2002 and then equalled four years ago in Turin.

Canada is not a large country in terms of population, and the despondency being shown in light of America's dominance of the medal table is totally unfounded. The home athletes at these Games have been put under immense pressure to perform by the media, the public and the aforementioned Own The Podium program, and as is so often the case back in Britain, as much attention is being given to failure as it is to success.

So, let's see where we are this time next week, and then let's judge how the Games have gone. After all, patience is a virtue...

Going for gold

So, the Olympic Winter Games are now well and truly under way, and Canada has its first gold in the shape of Alexandre Bilodeau in the moguls, the skiing event that requires compulsory knee replacement surgery every alternate year. Bilodeau is the first Canadian ever to win a gold medal on home soil (or snow, or ice for that matter), but for most Canucks the real action gets going tonight when the Canadian men's hockey team takes the ice for the first time. Canada's women have already got their hockey campaign off to a good start, but the men are the real focus of attention, and the public's obsession with, and expectations of, the team is every bit as intense as it gets in England when the soccer team are playing in the World Cup, with one major difference.

The Canadian hockey team actually have a chance of winning!

Get your skates on!

Yesterday the whole school - the students and staff, as opposed the building itself - took a trip to the arena for an afternoon of ice skating. Most, if not all, of the communities in Nunavik have an arena, and the arena here is called the Nurraujaq Forum; nurraujaq is the Inuttitut word for goat and before you ask no, I don't understand either. Now, whilst the idea of building an ice rink in the North might at first seem akin to building a swimming pool in the middle of the Pacific, these arenas are well used and provide a focal point for the community in a land where skating in general and hockey in particular are part of the national psyche.

Hockey tournaments are held regularly in the North, and each community has its own teams, male and female, which are proudly supported whenever they play. I'm not quite sure who named the team here - maybe it was the same person that named the arena - but they either lacked a basic knowledge of geography or were simply highly sarcastic:

I'll leave you to ponder that for a moment...

I didn't skate yesterday - skating's just not my bag, baby - but I had plenty of vicarious fun watching everyone else glide, stutter and stumble around the rink, and although I've now lived in Canada for over four years I don't think it's ever going to be something that I take to. I have tried in the past, but I decided that the bruises weren't worth it so now I'm the one who looks after the shoes and coats.

Somebody's got to.

Stop making sense

In the past I've made my feelings quite clear regarding hockey and, more specifically, the fighting that is tolerated within the sport. Last January the blog brought you the story of Garrett Klotz, who thankfully recovered after ending up in hospital as a result of a fight, but Don Sanderson was not so fortunate. In December of last year Sanderson, a 21 year-old player in the Ontario Hockey Association, was involved in a fight on the ice. His helmet came loose and his unprotected head slammed into the rink as he was forced to the ground; he went into a coma and died three weeks later.

Whilst idling flicking between channels this evening I came across a discussion on Hockey Night In Canada that centred around a new helmet that had been manufactured to make fighting safer, and the studio 'expert' informed us that it had been Sanderson's death that had prompted the new design. We then learned that rules are either already in place or will be in place soon - I couldn't hear exactly as the sound of my jaw hitting the floor momentarily drowned out the television - that will penalise players if they remove their helmets before fighting. Not penalise them for actually fighting, but if they fight without helmets.

At this point another 'expert' erupted into life, and you could quite plainly see him struggling to hold back the expletives as he lambasted this rule, stating that prospective players shouldn't bother getting into hockey in the first place if they weren't prepared to risk the physical consequences of fighting.

I could not believe what I was hearing.

Back in January, I concluded my post concerning Garrett Klotz with the following observation:

"So, what will it take for sense to prevail? I fear that someone is going to have to be killed for action to be taken, and even then I am not so sure. I sincerely hope that this will not be the case, but until action is taken, I cannot embrace hockey."

It is my sad duty to report to you now that there appears to be no sense in hockey.

Wife of Brian

Unlike many of the blogs that you may come across, Life In A Northern Town eschews the use of advertising on its pages, but I will make an exception today so that I may shamelessly publicise my sister's wonderful website.

It's said that the English are an eccentric race, and Vicky's Wife of Brian certainly fits in with this concept. Basically, if you've ever fancied owning an item of knitted facial hair then this is the place for you; beards, moustaches and eyebrows can be hand woven to order, and never again will you be caught short when the occasion demands some hirsuteness below the hairline.

I think there could be a real market over here in Canada, where the tradition of the playoff beard is ingrained into the national psyche, and I can just picture the scene next season where fans of both sexes are able to sport the ultimate 'game face.' This also means that even Sidney Crosby can now have an authentic playoff beard, rather than having to wait until puberty finally kicks in.

So, get your orders in now, and to any of my family or friends who are reading this: you now know what you're getting for Christmas!

Hockey heretic

I have no respect for hockey.

There, I've come out and said it. I know that such a statement is likely to be seen as heresy in Canada, and akin to me writing about democracy in China, but I can contain myself no longer.

Now, I realise that when you choose to live in another country you should make every effort to integrate with the culture and live by the norms and values that exist there. I think I've managed to do this by and large: I eat poutine, I have more Canadian Tire money than real money, Tim Horton's is my second home (at least when I'm in the South) and I've even been known to say the odd 'eh.' However, when it comes to hockey, I simply can't do it. I can admire the skill on the ice, I can identify with the passion shown by the fans off the ice, but there is one thing I can't get my head round.

The fighting.

I simply cannot respect a sport that condones fighting to the extent that hockey does. In a game in the AHL today (for the uninitiated, that's the American Hockey League, the primary 'feeder' league for the NHL), a fight broke out seconds after the start of the game, the result of which left Garrett Klotz, a player for the Philadelphia Phantoms, writhing and convulsing violently on the ice, courtesy of the Manchester Monarchs' Kevin Westgarth. He was rushed to hospital from where, thankfully, the early reports on his health seem to be positive.

For those of you unfamiliar with the game, when a fight breaks out the referees allow it to continue and only step in when one or both players finally hit the ice. The arguments given in defence of fighting include lines like "it's a physical sport," "it's a man's game," "it's part of the action," or "the players have to let off steam." I've even heard the comment "it wouldn't be the same game without the fighting."

Pathetic.

Look at rugby. There are few more physical sports on this planet, but fighting is not considered 'part of the game.' Indeed, if any combatants do emerge, intervention is immediate and bans are swift and suitably lengthy. The attraction of the game is not diluted as a result. Other than a few minutes in the penalty box, I am not sure what the repercussions (if any) are for fighting in hockey - I'm sure someone reading this will let me know - and you even get idiots like Don Cherry extolling the fighting skills of various players in his match summaries on TV.

To be fair, there are many Canadians who share my view on this subject, but there are just as many, if not more, who will disagree; just look at the comments registered on the TSN website regarding the Garrett v Westgarth fight. So, what will it take for sense to prevail? I fear that someone is going to have to be killed for action to be taken, and even then I am not so sure. I sincerely hope that this will not be the case, but until action is taken, I cannot embrace hockey.

I am now ready for deportation.

End of an era

As I'm sure our non-Canadian readers will know, hockey (ice hockey to Brits) is Canada's national sport (technically it's lacrosse, but we'll conveniently ignore that fact for the moment), just as it's soccer in England and drinking in Ireland. Now, this past week has marked the opening of the new hockey season, and it has also marked something of the end of an era. CBC's Hockey Night In Canada is the premier hockey show over here as well as being the world's oldest sports-related programme still on air - to call it a national institution would be something of an under-statement - and after forty years the show has decided to change its theme tune.

I say decided, but it would really be more accurate to say forced, because the reason for the change was a copyright dispute with the theme's publishers, resulting in the commissioning of a new theme via a nationwide competition. The new music has been written by a schoolteacher from Alberta, and speaking as a relative outsider with no emotional ties to the old theme, I must say that I like it (I also think that it sounds not unlike Jean Michel Jarre's Rendezvous IV). See what you think; the first clip is of the old theme, and the second is of the new one:





The whole issue has been a major talking point over here, and although it has not quite forced parliamentary debate (there is the little matter of an election coming up, after all), emotions have run high in some quarters. Many Canadians view the old theme as the nation's second national anthem, and apparently some mischievous tour guides have been known to pass it off to visitors as the national anthem. The old theme will live on though as CTV, a rival network to the CBC, has bought the rights to the music for its own hockey coverage, but even taking this fact into account, it certainly is the end of an era for hockey fans all over Canada.