wish I could write as well as Roch Carrier, whose short story The Hockey Sweater is a Canadian classic. But here anyway, is my Christmas hockey story.
I grew up in the hardscrabble mining town of Kirkland Lake, north of North Bay, where hockey was, shall we say, important. The local rink had been donated to the town by gold mining magnate Harry Oakes. It was both worn and wonderful, seating perhaps 1,200, but we generally used outdoor rinks anyway. My sister was a decent figure skater, but although I could trace a figure eight, I was more of a rink rat. Pictures of me in that era show a grinning kid with a strange, cone-shaped, rabbit-fur hat.
Always a style-setter.
We listened to the Leafs games on radio at 8 p.m. Saturday nights via the nasal voice of legendary Foster Hewitt. Our town produced for the NHL: Ted Lindsay, Dickie Duff, Ralph Backstrom, Larry Hillman, Bill Durnan and the dreaded Plager brothers, Billy, Bobby and Barclay.
There's a hoary old joke about Kirkland Lake I've heard many times. Seems a guy and girl, just acquaintances, were discussing Canadian small towns. And KL came up.
"Ah," says the guy, "Kirkland Lake: hockey players and prostitutes."
The girl is annoyed." I'm from Kirkland Lake," she says.
"Oh," he says smoothly, "which team did you play for?"
My three sons texted each other this past week around the issue: "What do we get Mother for Christmas?" They remembered my injunction to always "give experiences, not things," so they were thrilled when one of them came up with a ticket to the Leafs game Dec. 20. I last saw the Leafs at Maple Leaf Gardens on College Street. That's some time between games.
Now I have to confess. Although It is capitalism gone crazy, a bread-and-circuses show writ large, a cheery, noisy, outrageously expensive happening, I enjoyed it.
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I enjoyed the brisket sandwich, ($16) the sauce of which marked my jacket and the contents of which made mockery of my short-lived vegetarian pledge. Beer was $12.75. Parking at a public lot near the Novotel Hotel turned out to be only $6: some kind of mistake there, I think. Toronto is jammed with cars, of course.
Inside the rink, now called the Scotiabank Centre (that corporation having bought naming rights from Air Canada in the summer for $800 million), the party is on. I saw one baby happy because of heavy-duty ear muffs. I saw a teenager wearing a Marner shirt to which he had added on the back with duct tape: "Magic Mitch." I looked around at the crowd; a lot of young white men, making full use of the F-word in describing the play. Not nearly as diverse a crowd as at a Raptors game. Why is that?
One man wore a small plastic Christmas tree on his head. My seat, and it was on the third level, far from the platinum section, cost $120. Imagine.
I guess someone has to pay for Nylander's $39-million-for-seven-years contract. And the owners, ruled by the aggressive Gary Bettman, are very rich. It's far from its origins; even Bobby Orr now says so. Not affordable for the average family, it has become entertainment for plutocrats.
I am terribly compromised. And yet, to be here in person, one is mercifully spared TV ads, and commentators, especially Don Cherry, but is drawn in by non-stop diversion: T-shirts lobbed into the crowd, whole sections treated to Casino Rama tickets, a 50/50 draw worth $26,000. And of course the athletes, first and last. Skill, strength, precision, grace and balance.
The very day before my game, Marner and his buddy Auston Matthews had played cameo roles as cannon clowns in The Nutcracker ballet.
Who won? The Leafs did, 6-1.
Now for the Canadian Juniors playing in Vancouver and Victoria in a post- Christmas tournament. My love/hate relation with professional sports continues. But I can debate persuasively with my grandsons, and increasingly granddaughters, on hockey matters, when it matters.
Rosemary Ganley is a writer, teacher and activist. Reach her at rganley2016@gmail.com
Rosemary Ganley is a writer, teacher and activist. Reach her at rganley2016@gmail.com
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Opinion Dec 27, 2018
The good ol’ hockey game sure has changed
Opinion Dec 27, 2018
Local Dec 27, 2018