- I think your perspective is quite worthy of a casual discussion in the way that even the most banal shit (by which I mean *hockey 
) can turn into an onion of considerations and connections. 
In order to salut our mutual love for the Tom who Stomps, frequenter of the plywood section at Crappy Tire stores coast to coast - please take the post below with a salt lick fit for a gang of highland cattle. In my defense, what comes next was written under the satviating influence of home-grown and without any sense other than you may infer from it's tone. Sure, I was a bit hurt and defensive, but I remain(ed) 
/ hopeful I might yet stir up a friendly chat about the kind of shit I notice and ponder a little when I partake of my hockey and beer. I was about to post it when I saw your shout-out to himself. Obviously you and I were meant to be together on some level of copaceticism, so above all, let's remember that, and in that spirit: 
Canadian_watcher wrote:Dude, all I said was that I hate hockey SEASON because hockey is everywhere.
I didn't say I hate people who like hockey, or hockey itself.
You did say that "the hockey fan set" are "typically" prone to "namecalling". It's not the sort of thing people generally say about people they like, is it? I admit to being curious about your working definition of "the hockey fan set". If I'm on the roster, I guess you're casting a wide net. I hope from hereon you might consider that remark a personal failing of mine rather than aspersions to be cast on a wider group. FWIW to you at this point, my plainly stupid choice of a one-liner, 'haters gotta hate', referred entirely to the context in which you used *it (the word *hate). It was, nevertheless, careless and lazy of me. As you'll see if it interests you to read on, I also have a button to push. It's the opposite button, unfortunately - hence our disconnect.
I also think I picked the wrong emoticon to go with it...
<this one maybe? 
<maybe this one would have let on that I was just goofin' around? I hate that we become this mono-culture so that if you don't enjoy hockey you basically feel like an outsider all winter (and spring, FFS).
This implies that you don't enjoy hockey or that you are speaking on behalf of those who don't? You did say you didn't dislike the game and that you do in fact 'enjoy' Olympic hockey, so I'm unclear on this point. Either way, your statement that we become a mono-culture is a salient one. I hear Brazilians are absolutely loony about soccer ... Brits too, so go the rumours. Does that render them mono-cultural? Do Brits and Brazilians who don't really give a lickspittle one way or the other feel left out? These are honest questions. I asked the mister about this and that and he noted that baseball stands out in particular as a sport that doesn't require a focus on cooperation - the official sport of the official cult of individualism. It sounds right to me, but I'm not much for baseball, so I just don't know. Perhaps any Americans who aren't ignoring this thread would care to expand or debunk ...?
I googled "Canadian Culture" and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_Canada went to the first place on the list, where anybody else who googles the Mr. Snuffleupagus of national cultures might go first. I had to scroll down a ways before I got to the section on sport:
Ice hockey, referred to as simply hockey in the country, is Canada's official winter sport, its most popular spectator sport, and its most successful sport in international competition. Lacrosse, a sport with Aboriginal origins, is Canada's oldest sport and official summer sport.
It makes perfect sense to me that a game played on ice skates became the most popular spectator [winter] sport in Canada, what with all of our winter and our many lakes, ponds and rivers that freeze over. That it arouses the passions of as many of us as it does, even periodically or sporadically, is indicative of a deeper layer of *something*. We're also suckers for "being noticed" doing something random like play ice hockey really well in front of all the other countries. Our national culture of inferiority is the other thing we're quite well known for, besides maple leafs and maple sugar, (and more recently, getting on the neocon bandwagon) - I honestly wonder if there's a link there...? Lacrosse is awesome!
I've also noted the influence of regional politics and identity playing out in the choice of which team one favours. Markedly less so since the bloating of expansion teams, but persistent. It is, after all, the biggest effort "we've" made to export our "culture" to a US market beyond the borderlands (not including comedians) and "we" didn't make it. The machine made it to make money. Hence the glowing blue puck tactic, LA's home game cam' ever on the hunt for a celebrity in the crowd, and a distinct lean toward the Don Cherry end of the rock 'em sock 'em spectrum.
The French debate being preempted by a Habs playoff game is simply a recognition of the fact that 'getting together to back the home team' has such power and cultural weight, it demands its place. What element of cultural, *even political* expression is written between the lines of the collective passion of Quebecois voters for the Montreal Canadiens ...? ... and in the ROC.... ? I think these are valid questions for a lounge-like environment ...
Hating hockey SEASON and not disliking people who like hockey seem like somewhat mutually exclusive positions which is only to say we wouldn't have such a conspicuous presence of the former without the latter. Chickens and eggs, only here we know the game preceded the franchising by a long shot. Hockey games used by politicians for photo ops are in the same vein as babykissing, glad handing and pancake breakfasts. It's not about the hockey or the pancakes, and it's definitely not about the babies. Hockey is marketable in the first place because of it's particular emotional appeal among Canadians in their regions and across the country, emphasis on the 'emotional' part. The fact that the league sells swag at obscene retail prices is similarly not a comment on the game or the fact that aprox. 3 out of 4 of us are keeping an eye on the playoff schedule. That's down to capitalism and capitalism will eat anything.
Anyway, I posted the Jane Siberry lyrics because they say a lot of what I'm trying to get at, and much more beautifully than I can...
Weren't national sporting preoccupations already exposed by sociologists of some sort as a co-optable displacement of our apparent inclination to, among other things, gather in groups and square off against each other? Even as I type, "As it Happens" is interviewing a guy who's talking about thuggishness and violent sectarianism among Scottish football fans. We're not exactly immune to incidents of mob violence related to a hockey game either ... still, on a good day, without any rioting or super fan violence, it seems to me like an acceptable way to vent that shit. Surely the violence associated with it is more about who we often are as animals in a variety of social groups [these days/as usual] than it is about playing a game and enjoying a game being played on a pitch/patch of ice by skilled players.
Obviously, or not, I didn't come to RI for the Hockey talk. I don't 'go' anywhere for that actually. I spend the vast majority of my time here reading people much more knowledgeable than I on a range of topics I'm interested in. I thought this might be a fun thread that could go in a few directions including some aspects I've clumsily tried to highlight. Hockey is also just a game and some people do get paid irrational sums of money to play it inside a corporate vending machine. Like anything a lot of people do here or there, it can be a very interesting context in which to look at human behaviours, not to mention Canadian behaviours, and I am curious about both.
okay?
By all means write me twenty pages back on it if you feel like wasting your time.
Okay.
I don't feel I was wasting my time. I enjoyed writing my reply to you. I enjoyed this one too, because all the while I had a leisurely think about culture and sport and how these are commodified and used to steer people. I take it you feel it was a waste of my time. Well, I think that's a pretty ice-cold-queen-of-Hyperbole thing to say, not to mention a bit mean. I thought I was the queen of Hyperbole.
I 'hear' you saying you could do very nicely without having to drag yourself through a spate of my long-winded-who-gives-a-shit ...? Reading should rarely be a charitable act. Please don't bother with me on my account. Perhaps, thinking this might be a haven from the incessant nattering of "the hockey fan set" in your daily sphere of interactions, the very appearance of the thread title drove you to a fit of wild irk... gnashing of teeth? Exasperated FFS? Well. Alright then. This may not be your cup of tea. I aim to please and often fall short.
That said, MORE Stompin' Tom, eh?
Peace, C_W
and leave Bieb lover's to their own hairdo's. 
It has been fun.
start, I have found my own place in it and come to love it. A subway trip is like a gathering of the nations. It's a beautiful thing. Make sure you lot let your freak flags fly on main street once in awhile ... your neighbours might surprise you in a good way! 
, eh? 
