Canadian hockey in the eyes of czech hockey fan

The young boys from Canada made it again. For fifth time in a row. And what exactly? I'm talkin' about Junior's Hockey Championship. Canadians won golden medals when they beat "Three Crowns" (=Sweden). They didn't lose at all during the whole tournament (well, they were close to fall to Russia in semi-final - they tied the game just 5 secs before the end and eventually won in the shoot-out) and 46:12 is the ratio between scored goals and the goals in their net. WOW! They absolutely deserved to win. When you look at the canadian boys you can see how hard they work on themselves. And why should we wonder? NHL is something sooo damn attractive. Especially the young Canadian, Tavares, seemes that he'll be the first pick in upcoming NHL draft. I can just hope that it won't be Tampa where he could be drafted. Haha.

Canada simply was, is and always will be favorite in all hockey tournaments. I'd never thought before (when I was even more silly than I'm now - yes, it really is possible) that I'd be writing something like that about Canada. It's not that I didn't like this country 'cause I did (and still do) it was just that I was kind of blind and envious to the fact that they really are the best in hockey. Yes! It is true! You can say whatever you want, you can say that Russian beat them, that we, Czechs, have beaten them many times as well, but still... Even though I don't like this kind of phrase, hockey "was born" in Canada, it's so true and in my eyes, they really are the best in it. Just look how many people went to see this year's juniors tournament in Canada. Oh my god! The final was sold out! 20 380 fans! And what fans! Chanting, clapping their hands, screaming, with colors on their faces, in jerseys, with flags and so on. Sure, we (czech people) can be amazing fans too. We can just overcrowd every square in bigger cities in the country, every pub, bar, restaurant or just our living rooms when we want to watch hockey together. And we enjoy it damn much! But when? Only when men are playin'. Only when something "huge" is going on. I mean World Championships or Olympics. And only if it's play-off. Nobody cares that much when it's like the first game in the group. And nobody cares that much when the juniors are playing. Just remember the last year's tournament when it was held in our country. So few people went to the arena to see the hockey game. It's a shame, isn't it? Like when you compare it to the atmosphere at junior's tournament in Canada. And we call ourselves as a "hockey nation". What an irony.

Our hockey might be more "inteligent" or our players might be "smarter", but nobody can deny that Canada gave to the world so many amazing players. Like the best on the planet. And Canadians are proud of it. Well, maybe too much sometimes. The pride and belief in your own strenghts which Canadian hockey players have might look not very nice sometimes in your eyes but sayings like: "He plays like a fuckin' asshole because he's a stupid cocky Canadian." is as idiotic as if you were saying that you'd sleep with some ugly man just because he's fuckin' clever and his brain is sexy. Canada, its hockey and hockey fans simply deserve my huuuge admiration.

But don't get me wrong. This article seems that I'm like: "Oh, I love Canada and fuck you, Czech Republic." but it's really NOT like that. Even though I think Canada = the best hockey country, czech hockey (the national or our leagues) is damn important for me! Well... I'm a bit disappointed sometimes that only few people around me really care about hockey and know the game but on the other hand... I'm Czech. And I'm fuckin' proud of it! Damn, I love our "gold hockey generation" and I love my memories about me as a small 11-year-old girl who was discovering the beauties of this sport while watching Olympics in Nagano. Since then I've been more or less livin' for hockey. And still I am. After the national team, I added Zlin (=my hometown) hockey team to my favourites and finally the NHL team Tampa Bay Lightning. These three teams simply belong deep in my heart.

So. To close this article, which should have been much shorter, I have to say that Canada has my respect, admiration and part of my heart. To the Czech Republic belong my undying support, loyalty and my whole heart.

I will always love hockey. Forever. And I don't care that there are still some people who think I love it just because of the cute guys on their skates. I don't care at all.