Hockey in Canada

This past summer I travelled to Toronto, Canada. This was my first time in Canada, and I learned a lot about this beautiful country. Canadians love sports, especially hockey, which I could see even in the summer. The team in Toronto is called the Maple Leafs, and they are one of the original six teams in the NHL (National Hockey League) when it was founded over 90 years ago.

While in Toronto, I visited the Hockey Hall of Fame, which is a museum about the history of hockey, which also houses the famous championship trophy won at the end of each season, called the Stanley Cup.  The trophy is 90cm high and weighs 15kg.  Each player of the winning team gets his name engraved into the trophy, and gets to have his own day with the trophy.  For example, one player took the trophy fishing, while others have taken it to their hometown and had a parade.

Hockey is a very fast and violent game. Players skate on ice and try and shoot a rubber puck past a goalie and into a net. All the players wear a lot of padding to protect them from all the hitting involved.  Often, players even drop their gloves and get into a real fist fight!  I didn't fully understand the game, but these were the main things that I noticed.

In addition to the NHL, ice hockey is played in the Winter Olympics, and during the last Olympics held in Vancouver, Canada, Canada beat the USA to win the gold medal in both the men’s and women’s competitions.  For Canada, hockey is the only sport that really matters.  If they had not won the gold medals in their home country, the entire Olympics would have been a failure.

I was surprised to learn that many countries have national hockey teams, not only ones that have cold weather.  Israel has a national hockey team, and their blue and white jersey with a Magen David was on display in the museum. Israel is ranked 39th in the world, ahead of countries like Turkey, South Africa, Mongolia, and others.