Having just returned from my old Oxford Blues Hockey Tour of Switzerland, commemorating 100 years of Canadians at Oxford University playing hockey in Europe, I have yet another perspective on our Canadian passion for hockey. Watching the Winter Olympics on television in Switzerland and England was an interesting experience. To watch Canada’s hockey teams play required much sacrifice of sleep since the games began at 1:30 or 2:30am. But most interesting was to hear non-Canadian TV commentators reflect on the place of hockey in the Canadian psyche. For the most part I think they got it right: Yes, there was an urgency to win the gold medals in hockey, especially the men’s hockey gold. Yes, it was a point of national pride. Yes, there was collective despair when we lost to the Americans in the preliminary round.
