I’ve got a lot of French Canadian blood in me. I am proud of my Canuck heritage. And when I go over the cousins and Uncles Houses there is almost always a Hockey game on. They take it as seriously as breathing. I grew up with this ingrained in me, but I never learned the rich history behind it.
Can some Canadians pop in here and fill me in on the history of Hockey to Canadian Culture? I’d like to discuss opinions on the sport and the future of it therein…
Well, I’ve heard hockey is why doggie style sex is so popular in Canada.
I’m a Southern girl who became a hockey fan in the mid '90’s when Columbus got a minor league team. I loved it from the first game, but learning the rules took quite a while and there really was no place here to learn anything about the history of the sport. I picked up The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Hockey at Books a Million and it was very interesting. It actually had more history than I was looking for, as at the time I was trying to understand some of the rules. “Offsides? WTF?”
So you’re a Montreal Canadiens fan then?*
I’m a little unclear on your question, but I’ll throw a couple of things out for discussion and maybe we can clarify it. I think a few things are responsible for the popularity of hockey in Canada:
– The weather. Remember, it’s cold enough in many places here to freeze lakes and rivers for months at a time. When you got tired of being indoors, what could you do to get outdoors and have a little fun? The baseball and football fields were covered in snow, but there was a nice frozen lake. Why not play hockey?
– Organized opportunities. When I was a child in the 60s, there was no Little League Baseball or Pop Warner Football in Canada. We played these in pickup games at the local park though. There was no organized soccer, and nobody played that at all. But while we all played road hockey, there were also organized hockey leagues at the local rink, open to all kids who were old enough to strap on a pair of skates. Which could be a very young age; like my peers, I learned to skate when I was 3. Another byproduct of having long winters.
– Reality I. While Canadian high schools and universities have varsity sports, they tend to be nothing more than extracurriculars for interested students. They have little fan base outside of current students. The Americans, with their college scholarships and varsity sports media coverage, are good at developing the world’s best players in basketball and football. We like to play these too, but if we’re going to be the world’s best at any team sport, it’s got to be one the Americans didn’t traditionally do and that fit with our climate: hockey.
– Reality II. Long before cable and satellite, there was radio. While it was possible to pick up US radio if you lived close enough to the border, most Canadians didn’t. And what sport was broadcast was hockey. When TV came in–all two channels of it–one showed hockey every Saturday night. Later, we could watch MLB, CFL, and NFL on a host of channels, but I don’t remember a time when hockey wasn’t regularly scheduled for broadcast.
Offsides is actually one of my favorite rules, because fans get so MAD :mad: at the refs when they call it against the home teams…I’ve had much beer spilt because of OS rulings…
Oh God yes!!! My wife (who is a canuck as well) showed up to a family get together with a Toronto Shirt on one time to chastise an uncle. It was all fun and good until he very seriously asked her to change her shirt. The little shit she is kept it on the rest of the night. 
Spoons thank you very much, I learned a little more today about the sport that is so important to my family…
You can start here, if you like: *Hockey evolves from a primitive stick and ball game played in the shadows of the ancient pyramids to a more familiar – though frantic – pastime on the ponds of Europe, Great Britain and then Nova Scotia. Equipment for the game makes giant strides in 1866 when the Starr Manufacturing Co. of Dartmouth, N.S., introduces a cutting-edge line of skates and offers wooden sticks carved by Mi’kmaq artisans.
Renaissance man and Halifax resident James Creighton introduces hockey to Canada’s most important city when he gathers his McGill University rugby mates, and some intrigued spectators, at the Victoria Skating Rink in Montreal for the first indoor match. The chaotic contest is more reminiscent of rugby (no forward passing, lots of bodychecking) but the seeds of modern hockey are planted.
Hockey hits the national stage when it appears at the famous Montreal Winter Carnival and newspaper accounts introduce the sport to an audience beyond the wealthy English gentleman who play it. An intrigued Governor General falls in love with the game, and in 1892 the hockey-mad children of Lord Stanley of Preston convince their father to purchase a silver cup to present annually to the best team in the Dominion of Canada.* - CBC / Hockey: A People’s History
Hockey is something that’s always been in the background for me and is simply a part of Canada, and being Canadian. The theme to “Hockey Night in Canada” is as sweetly familiar as the maple, French and English and winter. It’s just part of the national consciousness. While not a follower of the NHL, I will watch Canada play for big games, and root with all my heart. Every town I grew up with had a local team or the nearest bigger town did. Trail Smokeaters, for example. I never went to a game, but I know the Trail team was the Smokeaters. Smoke Eaters? I’ve never lived in a place in Canada that didn’t have a local arena, with an ice rink for hockey. I know The Hockey Sweater. It’s just… us.
As well she should. Nothing wrong with wearing the fabled, storied, and revered Blue-and-White anywhere. Suitable for all occasions. 
I’'m convinced that it was some Montreal fan who engraved the picture on the back of the $5 bill, since he put a kid wearing Maurice Richard’s number 9 Canadiens sweater in the picture. I know, I know, it goes along with the quotation on the bill from Roch Carrier, who wrote “The Hockey Sweater.” But at least there should have also been a kid in Johnny Bower’s Toronto Maple Leaf sweater blocking number 9’s shot. As so often happened in real games.
You’re quite welcome, but you should also check out Savannah’s link to “The Hockey Sweater.” Read the book or see the film if you can (there seems to be a link so you can watch the film online), but even if you cannot, the Wiki page will help you to understand the importance of hockey to Canadians.
We do have hockey in the United States now.
Go Flames!
Hush. I’m from Alberta and Edmonton’s sucking.