Canada's Game | Teen Ink

Canada's Game

June 20, 2019
By charstar227 BRONZE, Vancouver, Columbia
charstar227 BRONZE, Vancouver, Columbia
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

You could feel it in the air. A sense of hope and promise. The Canucks finally looked primed to win the cup. We were up 3-2 and the Bruins looked lost. What happened next were stories of looting,rioting, and agony. What the hell happened?


I grew up watching hockey. My dad was a massive fan and grew up playing the game. It didn’t take long for me to assimilate. The canucks have always been a major connection for me and my dad. My whole family in fact is super close and we bond over it. My Grandma takes it very seriously and she was the reason I heard my first swear word at 4. “What the f**k Daniel.” “Oh sh*t c'mon guys”. Hockey Night in Canada and meat sauce dinners are a staple. I tried to play as a kid but there was a small problem. I couldn’t skate. At all. To this day, I still need the plastic cart things to help me stay up.


When I was a kid I was trying to figure out what my sports were going to be. I was playing baseball and tennis which i enjoyed playing but didn’t truly love the sports. Coming into the 2010 olympics I was all in on hockey. Canada’s team was shaping up to be our best in a long time and winning gold on home soil was a real possibility. Countless watch parties led up to the final.  A classic matchup, Canada vs US. It was a back and forth game. With a minute to go, Canada was up. I was mentally preparing myself for the moment I’d been dreaming about, to become a reality. Then the puck is thrown on net and after a bounce off the pad of Luongo, Zach Parise tied it up with 24 seconds left. Immediately the air was let out of the room. Hope was lost. Even though the game was tied and heading into overtime, it felt over in my heart. All of overtime was dominated by the US, but Luongo stood on his head. I couldn’t breathe. Finally, Inginla in corner with a great feed in front of the net to Sidney Crosby. He buried it in the back of the net and scored “The Golden Goal”. Everyone in Canada erupted in cheers simultaneously. Happiness exuded from my Aunt and Uncle’s basement. Then the question popped into everyone’s mind at once. What now? We had just invested so much emotional energy into the Olympics. As quickly as the question popped up, the answer did too. Street Hockey. The next 2 hours were filled with many laughs, cheers, and bloopers. Cars were driving by and honking their horns as a sign of connection and pride. The whole country was united as one. That same sense of pride carried into the next Canucks season.


 They had a top squad in the NHL and expectations were high. The Canucks did not disappoint. They finished the regular season with the most points in the league earning the presidents trophy. The Canucks were to open the playoffs against the defending Stanley Cup Champion, Chicago Blackhawks. A 3-0 lead in the series was quickly accomplished. But Chicago stormed back to tie the series and it was extremely nerve racking. The Blackhawks were starting to look like the team that had won the Cup the year prior. It went to OT in game 7 but Burrows came through and “slayed the dragon”. Nashville was up next and again a close series but the Canucks came through in game 6. On to the conference finals where the boys made quick work of the Sharks in 5 games. And then, for the first time in my life, the Canucks were off to the Stanley Cup finals. I was feeling great and riding a high. But that was all about to come crashing down.  


I was really close with one of the support workers at my elementary school. We bonded over baseball and hockey. We talked every minute would about the Canucks during that run. I always had faith. He never did. Funny how you can be a fan of the same time and have completely different ideas and mentalities. So of course, when the finals came around, he has pessimistic and I was the opposite. We both had good intentions at heart and wanted the same outcome but had different ways of going about it. Starting the series off 2-0 was a huge confidence booster. We needed 2 more they needed 4. Simple right? Yeah, that’s what I thought too. The next 6 games were some of the most gut wrenching agonizing moments I’d gone through. The riots were scaring. That’s not our city. That’s not what we represent or stand for. It was awful. The media coverage globally was out of control and a dark image was painted all over our great city. It hurt me maybe as much as anyone but my feeling wasn’t anger. It was sadness but also thankfulness for all the amazing moments with friends and family I had experienced. Anyone who came out of that amazing season with anger and animosity in their hearts, were not true fans. It took awhile for me to start loving the sport again. It was just disappointing year after disappointing year. It all changed when the Sedins retired. A new era was ushered in. The team was now exciting and fresh. Seasons of great draft picks are starting to come to fruition for this team. They are now 8 points out of a playoff spot so it is unlikely that this year will be the year. But as this young core continues to grow and create chemistry, the sky's the limit and Stanley Cups are likely in the near future. And my love for Canada’s game has never been stronger.



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