This was published 8 years ago
Watching ice hockey in Canada: Where hockey is just not a sport, it's a religion
A game in full flight. Credit: Getty Images
Ordinarily, I have little interest in organised sport, but when somebody recently offered me the chance to see a Canadian hockey game, I immediately said yes. I said yes because hockey in Canada is not really a sport so much as a national faith. Attending a match is something like attending a Pentecostal service where people fall down and speak in tongues: you don't have to believe to find the spectacle fascinating.
To prepare, I visit the Hockey Hall of Fame, in Toronto. This is a place where hockey masks are lined up like indigenous totems, and metal hockey statues resemble gods. A large sign announces, "Welcome to the cathedral of hockey." Even the Canadians embrace the comparison with religion.
Cathedral is an apt term, too: there are chapel-like rooms filled with memorabilia, and a central chamber with a vast, vaulted ceiling of stained glass showing lions and beavers. Once this was the Bank of Montreal; now it holds a replica of the Stanley Cup.
True colours: Ottawa Senators' fans.Credit: Alamy
The Stanley Cup is the holy grail of hockey in Canada. "You can touch it," a guard tells me in reverent tones. The real Stanley Cup is on perpetual tour through the country, bouncing from prairie town to prairie town. Each year it visits the home of every player on the winning team, and all the townsfolk come out to bow down before it. Occasionally it has been known to end up in unsavory locales - a strip club, for instance. Somebody once bathed their baby in the top.
Anyway, this is all background knowledge to the game itself, which actually comes in Ottawa, a few hours away from Toronto. It is very cold when I arrive at the stadium: minus 31 degrees. The car park is shrouded in a fog of exhaust. Figures stagger towards the Canadian Tire Centre as though it is an alien spaceship and they are all compelled by voices in their heads.
Inside, hoards of people peel off a dozen layers to reveal jerseys of the Ottawa Senators. The other side is American, so nobody really cares about them tonight, and I shall leave them nameless as a pledge of allegiance.
Ottawa Senators defenseman Patrick Wiercioch #46 in a multi exposure image.Credit: Alamy
Before the game starts, I stop to sample the food. My choices are sausage in a bun, cheese cannoli, or smoked meat. Which is best?
"It's a hockey game," the server barks. "Smoked meat."
Two minutes later, when I find my seat in the rafters, a neighbour looks over at the bowl of pastrami slathered in mustard and nods approvingly. "Smoked meat," she says. "Good choice." For a moment I feel like I really belong. Suddenly, a dozen players glide out onto the ice in a weirdly unsynchronised dance. They flex and spin, like 100-kilogram ballet dancers. This must be the warm-up. "WE ARE SPORT" begins to flash in neon all over the arena.
In the arena.Credit: Getty Images
I can't tell you what happens next. I watch the game, I just have no idea what actually happens, and it would be a lie to pretend otherwise. People hit a puck with sticks. A giant Canadian flag floats across the audience. A retired police officer sings the national anthem in vibrating baritone. A player throws a punch, then an umpire hits the ice. A truck drives around the rink advertising a car dealership. People dress up like old prime ministers, with big bobble heads, and have a farcical race while the audience cheers on their ineptitude.
The smoked meat is, indeed, very good.
The point is this: despite being completely ignorant in almost every way, I find it all exhilarating. And near the very end, just before the Senators lose, I'm moved by some unfamiliar spirit and stand to say a little prayer.
Outside the Hockey Hall of fame.Credit: Alamy
TRIP NOTES
MORE INFORMATION
GETTING THERE
Air Canada offers flights from Sydney and Melbourne to Toronto via Vancouver. See aircanada.com.
A good way to move between Toronto and Ottawa is with the efficient and well-serviced VIA Rail. See viarail.ca.
SEE + DO
In Toronto, the Hockey Hall of Fame is your one-stop-shop for obscure Hockey lore. See hhof.com.
In Ottawa, the Canadian Tire Centre is a terrific place to witness the spectacle of ice hockey firsthand. See canadiantirecentre.com.
Lance Richardson was a guest of the Canadian Tourism Commission.
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