It's like a parallel reality

At home, (ice) hockey just isn't on anybody's radar.

It hardly gets a mention in the papers.

My local team plays in a bijou little rink that holds a crowd numbered in the hundreds not thousands (but we hundreds make plenty of noise!)

It's just not big news.

So if, for example, I am out shopping, and I see someone wearing an NHL-related t-shirt, for example, for any team, it's a huge buzz :) And I'll usually accost them and talk their ears off.

I saw a car the other week with an Oilers sticker in the back window and I was so excited I almost drove into them lol

So being over here, where hockey is EVERYWHERE, is wonderful, but at the same time, pretty freaky.


I walk into the bar in my hotel, and there is a signed Naslund jersey on the wall.

I open the local paper, and there is a huge photo of two hockey players on the front page of the sports section - and not just any two hockey players either (Todd! Leave my Kes alone!)

There are even hockey players on the money for goodness sake!

And at the science museum? An exhibit in the section on "forces" invites kids into a batting cage to test their slapshot against the Team Canada goalie.



Hockey is everywhere - every second man or child (and occasionally woman) walking past me on the street has something hockey related about their person.

Did I die and go to heaven? If so, please don't do to me what Willow did to Buffy, I am happy here :)