Scott Stinson: Hockey is still Canada's game. But will it last?

There is no doubt that hockey is still Canada’s game, however, there are questions that have no answer yet, a clear example of them is, will it last?

Sean Fitz-Gerald tells the story of his eight-year-old son, Brendan, when he met a boy his age who had moved to the neighborhood with his family from Vancouver. The new boy said he liked hockey; his favorite player was Brock Boeser, the young end of the Canucks. Brendan said that he was PK Subban. They immediately fell into a shared language, each fluently in hockey.

It should be noted that in his new book, Sean Fitz-Gerald discovered that hockey in this country has deep-rooted problems, however, no one sees an offer of easy solutions.

Hockey Challenges

Fitz-Gerald, who is a veteran sports journalist (and former colleague), now set out to chronicle the challenges facing the national game, while spending a season with the formerly powerful junior hockey team Peterborough Petes. What he found, as told in the new book Before the Lights Go Out, was that everyone agrees that hockey in this country has entrenched problems, as well as that it is too expensive, too white, consumes too much and yet, nobody sees easy solutions on offer.

Certainly, this brings a series of concerns to the public that clearly lead to a single question, something unthinkable: Are we heading towards a world in which Canada is no longer the main hockey power?

The forces that have been working against broad participation in hockey have been growing for some time, which is one of the reasons why they take a look at the book. The big one is money. Fitz-Gerald’s daily work had led him to a set of prospects in Toronto several times, one in which teenagers hoping to be recruited to the CHL presented themselves for scouts.

That competitive hockey has leaked to children of lesser means is no secret. This week, Scotiabank published a survey that said more than half of hockey’s parents spend at least $ 5,000 a year on the sport. More than 80 percent of respondents said the costs were higher this season than the previous one, and a significant number of parents said they paid off debts or found additional work to offset the cost.

Source: Scott Stinson | National Post