The game of hockey is perhaps the most central and pervasive form of popular culture in Canada. It has been called the "tie that binds,"" the "common passion,"" and the "Canadian game- (Gruneau and Whitson, 1993). With its origins in Kingston, Ontario, many Canadians have vivid memories of endless hockey pick up games that made winter fun in their youth. As it grew into organized hockey, there was the cool air of the indoor rink, the musty smell of the concrete dressing rooms, the friendships of team life, recollections of youthful fandom and hero worship, and watching the ever popular Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts. These memories of sights, sounds and feelings are the components of identity "part of the attachments that some Canadians have to the places, times, and social influences that shaped the developing conceptions of themselves.
The definition of culture ""the complex web of meanings, beliefs, and ways of living that characterize any society- (Gruneau and Whitson, 1993) "is used when people note the important role that hockey plays in Canadian culture. Hockey is part of the way Canadians live and make sense of their lives. Hockey's rhythms, meanings, structures, and contradictions are all components of everyday Canadian experiences. The game has become one of Canada's most significant collective representations "a story Canadians tell themselves about what is means to be Canadian. .
Millions of Canadians play hockey in one form or another "young and old, boys and girls, urban and rural, French and English, able and disabled. And millions more follow the game passionately. Even people who dislike hockey have difficulty escaping its reach, its presence in the media, and in the everyday conversations that occur at the office and the school. Added to this, is a history that has allowed the game to represent something purely Canadian. Hockey is something "we- invented; it is "our- game.
