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| Let's play Toronto, ON January 2020 This photo originally shared on Instagram |
That may not sound like a terribly big deal within the context of a global pandemic, and given what's happening in hospitals everywhere, it really isn't. Over 3,900 people died in the U.S. alone yesterday. So a game involving shooting a frozen puck into a net atop a large sheet of ice doesn't seem all that serious in comparison.
And yet it is. Hockey is Canada's game. Well, our official national sport is actually lacrosse, but hockey is the one we play on neighborhood rinks well into the night and good-naturedly argue about over breakfast the next day. It very much is the story of what it means to be Canadian.
So when the NHL decided to schedule a shortened season in front of empty stands, the all-Canadian division was born. And much joy was had in the land.
Hockey won't solve COVID. A game where the ultimate metric involves who put the puck in the net the most shouldn't rank as the most critical part of our day. Bitter debates over the merits of "your" team over the "other" team reinforce the frequent myopia of all sports, our inability to appreciate all the other benefits these games bring us far beyond the final score.
Still, sometimes you just have to watch it to appreciate its subtleties.
So that's what we'll do in this unusual year. We'll close our eyes and just listen to this signature of our Canadian experience. We'll connect with others over something we all love. We may even smile.
In the end it's still just a game. But it's ours. And we owe it to ourselves to find color wherever we can, to turn the greys of a numbing period in history into something more vibrant.
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