I either call it Hokey or Stick Fighting. That usually sets the expectation level with my conversation partners as to how much/little I’m interested in talking about the sport.

I have noticed that it is expected that everyone who lives here know something about hockey. That’s not an explicit requirement, but I bet if you said ‘I don’t know a thing about hockey and am not interested’, you’d be given some strange looks in some circles. I’m sure there are lots of equivalent expectations about other subjects/sports in other areas. Maybe its a matter of being able to make polite conversation about something other than the weather. In Boston, I think there were times when ‘How ’bout them Sox?’ was the equivalent of ‘Hi there’.

Maybe the effort it takes to learn a bit about what a power play is, or that the game is played in three periods (with or without overtime), or even the names of some of the star players causes one to invest some of yourself into it. It doesn’t create famdom, or even perhaps, enthusiasm, but it does mean that you can participate somewhat. Pam has really gotten to like the game, and was perhaps less familiar with it than I was when we arrived in Canada.

Roland -
Thanks for the reminder. Now that we know the technology works, it’ll be good to see it in action. I’ll try to tune in (seems like a strange verb for linking to a URL, but then again, we still ‘dial’ the phone even though I haven’t seen a phone with a dial on it for years).

There may be a craze in Vancouver now, but I think you misoverestimate the importance of hockey. When there was a strike/lockout and a season with no hockey, it was my experience that it was a relatively small group (of men) who grumbled. Most Canadians, including almost every single immigrant, just went on with their life, with one less (media generated) distraction in their life.

Of course I don’t claim that my social sphere includes a broad cross section of Vancouver-ites, and it includes almost no Canadians from outside the lower BC mainland.