Why So Important

As we have just completed the Hockey Season with the Red Wings wining it all and are the current Stanley Cup Champions I’m sure some of you are wondering what the big deal is. It is more than a game, it is more than a sport and if you have never lived where hockey is truly respected for the amount of skill involved you just wouldn’t understand.

Ice hockey is played on a large flat area of ice, using a three inch (76.2 mm) diameter vulcanized rubber disc called a puck. This puck is often frozen before high-level games to decrease the amount of bouncing and friction on the ice. The game is contested between two teams of skaters. The game is played all over North America, Europe and in many other countries around the world to varying extent.

The game of hockey is more like a tradition. I know for myself some of the earliest memories of my step dad are when I was about 10 and we sat in front of a TV in our living room and we watched the Red Wings Play on Hockey Night In Canada. Even though the picture was small grainy and black and white, it was the best time ever. Hockey is about the working stiff, the blue collar guy. Professional Hockey players are not in the news much even though they are very skilled and most of them are family men and take pride in that.

Today was the parade in the city of Detroit celebrating the team and their accomplishment this year and for spectator Corinne Gordon, the parade was bridge building. The Red Wings' six-game series win over the Penguins gave fans the chance to temporarily put aside the economic doldrums and the mayoral saga that have dominated the news for months. "There's been so much doom and gloom and separation between the city and suburbs because of what the mayor has done," Gordon said. "This brings people together."

Hockey is about family, tradition and hope for if only three 20 minutes periods.