What's next? I'll tell you what's next, Hockey Day in Canada that's what's next.
In a country as large as Canada, it's sometimes hard to find common ground with countrymen who live so far away. Our country spans the North American continent, some 7000 km across. And someone in Victoria, may not have so much in common with someone who lives in Halifax. But one thing that almost all Canadians agree on and embrace is the love of the greatest game on earth, hockey. And on Saturday the CBC put together their annual homage to our great game with their wonderful event, Hockey Day in Canada. Three games, six teams and 12 hours of hockey, hockey, hockey. Only in Canada could this exist.
And what better way to celebrate this "holiday" than with friends.
So what exactly makes a great Hockey Day in Canada? Here are a few of the basic ingredients.
1 -Enough bodies to play a brisk game on Road Hockey
2 -Enough beer to keep those bodies well lubricated
3 -Enough food to keep those same bodies fueled
4 -Enough seating so those tired, drunk, full bellied bodies can plunk themselves down and watch hockey for the rest of the night.
5- Enough poker chips that these same bodies will be able to pretend that they still have the cognisant abilities to bluff and cheat their way to winning a game of poker.
And this is exactly what we did.
Starting at about 2pm we primed our bodies with a few beers and watched the Ottawa Senators take it to the Montreal Canadiens for the first 20 minutes, building a near insurmountable 4-0 lead before we decided to stop watching the carnage and head outside to play our own game.
Road Hockey is not a slow game and it seems to get faster and harder every time I play. In theory it always sounds like fun, but in reality it gets harder and harder as you get older. There is a lot of running and pavement isn't as soft as I remember it. Also, those hockey balls get pretty solid as the mercury drops and one shot in the pills is enough to bring any game to a quick halt. Which is exactly what happened.
So after about two hours of Road Hockey and a few crushed testicles we dragged our tired, bruised bodies back into the house to drink beer, eat meat and watch hockey. And eat, drink and watch we did.
We had a keg for the main course (Robert Simpson of course), plus a few appetizer six packs and dessert twelves, so the beer was pretty much taken care of. And the food? Oh my, the food. Steve "BD" Svicki put together quite the spread. He started everyone off with a super sloppy pulled pork sandwich (so sloppy that when I got home this morning Liz pointed out that I actually had sauce on the top of my head), topped with coleslaw and smokey baked beans on the side. These sandwiches almost convinced me that there was a God and he loves us. Dripping in his own secret BBQ sauce, the pork just exploded in your mouth and mixed with the coleslaw it was near perfection. This probably should have been enough food for anyone. But no, we needed more. And about two hours and half a terrible Leaf / Canuck game later the beef ribs were brought out. And again these ribs were brilliant, a better accompaniment to hockey I cannot dream of.
We tried to watch the whole Leaf game but it became too embarrassing so we switched over to football for awhile. This is when my memory starts to fade a little and the details get a little foggy.
I know we watched a bit of the Calgary / Edmonton game and I know we played poker for a while, but who won the game and the poker match I don't know. All I can remember is falling asleep watching Moonraker and waking up on a couch covered by a large white bear skin rug.
So a successful Hockey Day in Canada it was.
So what's next.