Comments on: Hockey Day in Canada

By: chuck goolsbee

chuck goolsbee — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 18:50:18 +0000

Well said.
I’ve pretty much given up on NHL hockey. I live in a town that will NEVER see an NHL franchise, (despite being where the Stanley Cup was first raised by a US team, 1917) and the Canucks have shot their ticket prices into the stratosphere. I do occasionally attend WHL major junior games in Everett.
I drove home yesterday from the Bay Area, where I spent the week at Macworld Expo. From Chehalis to Seattle I flipped the radio over to the AM band. I had no idea that this was HDiC… but to my surprise I was able to listen to a station out of Calgary (Flames/Oilers), a station out of Penticton (Pentiction vs Vernon IIRC), and a station out of San Francisco, which was running the NFC playoffs. I bopped about between the three games. The Junior hockey was the most entertaining of all.
There was a period of time where hockey was my life. I played, officiated, and supported my wife’s ice-time as well. Almost every day of the week had some hockey-related activity going on. Ten years later it rarely crosses my mind. Odd how that happens.
–chuck

By: C. Mitchell

C. Mitchell — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 02:31:05 +0000

I can not beleive-that the sport of hockey has been turned into a gang show-due to the poor call bye the officals. And wait untill the all star game!!-the Canadian idealism of hockey has now been turned into a WWE on ice-what a joke esp on such a day as Hockey Day in Canada. Do;t bye those Jersey’s kids –the new WWE-opps Nhl has changed the dress code as well-Good bye Mr. Howe, Good Bye Mr. Keon, Good bye Mr. Orr. Good bye hockey –Goodbye.

By: E

Sat, 13 Jan 2007 23:18:17 +0000

thank you.

By: Daniel Robitaille

Daniel Robitaille — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 22:12:13 +0000

Great post.
When they started, the Victoria Salsa was sponsored by the local franchise of Taco Time (an Arizona company); the first time I saw the Salsa was in 1994 (during the first NHL lockout). The sight of a white guy wearing a sombrero on skates between periods throwing goodies into the crowd will always stay with me (that and the large green jalapeno mascot they had for a while)
The Kariya you saw was Martin, not Kevin. Paul played in Penticton, Steve played up-island in Nanaimo, and Martin is the one who played in Victoria. So all 3 brothers played in that league before they went on to the NCAA at the University of Maine.
When Martin started with the team he looked so small (even by the Kariya family’s standards) that it was as if there was a small kid playing with these teenagers. But even then you could see hints of the very good passing skills all the hockey players in that family seem to have. Sadly I was out of town the year Martin accumulated great stats in Victoria (1998-99: 25 goals, 80 assists, 105 points).