from Ken Warren of the Ottawa Citizen,

Just in case you had any doubt, life in Canada is hockey and hockey in Canada is life.

Or something like that.

Anyone else wake up with slightly blurry eyes yet again Tuesday morning, after watching Canada’s Team in Winnipeg take on the Cinderella squad from Vegas late Monday?

Clearly, hockey is a vital enough event in our national psyche that, from mid-April to mid-June, many of us program our evenings around a puck, happily give up some of our beauty sleep and don’t seem to mind that the national TV news is delayed night after night.

Meanwhile, that loud guy displaying the bizarre fashion sense of bright flowers and stripes— and everything in between— continues to hold court over a country during extended breaks in the action.

A few years ago, a visitor from France mentioned all of the above with fascination, scarcely believing that a “silly game” could serve to hold our collective attention for months on end, year after year.

continued