Canucks and Beyond

Who Will Canadians Cheer For?

04/13/2009 at 4:43pm EDT

“Hockey is the Canadian metaphor.”
Bruce Kidd and John MacFarlane, from The Death of Hockey.

That quote was cited in this posting by Scott Russell today on CBC, where he pointed to the importance of playoff hockey in Canada’s national story, as it unfolds in the coming weeks.

This season, it’s the Canadiens, Canucks and Flames who carry the burden of a nation’s expectations and for the next seven weeks or so, we’ll all be watching these three standard bearers night in and night out as they conduct a Canadian crusade to recover the most precious of national treasures. Even the national news on the public network will accommodate the unfolding plot. And so it should, because in Canada there is little that matters more to the country’s sense of itself than the pursuit of what we believe is ours.

Hockey takes on enormous consequence in both news and watercooler talk during the playoffs in Canada, and not simply for the fans of teams at play but for hockey fans of all clubs.

Given that, which team will most Canadians get behind in the first round? Who is the favorite Canadian team (sentimental or otherwise) across the country to open the 2009 playoffs?

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