There was a time there in the mid '80s to the '90s there that we played six finals, three Canada Cups, we were playing hockey almost 10 months a year for a long time there.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Canada is hockey.
I've never seen anything like it since. Some of the Canada Cups came close, but by then a lot of European players came and played in our league so we were more familiar with them.
I spent my childhood in Newfoundland and then my junior high and high school years in Alberta, Canada.
Growing up in Canada, most kids from Canada dream of playing in the NHL, and they also hope one day to be on a Stanley Cup team. That was a big goal.
My wife and I came to Canada for the 1994 Commonwealth Games and we really liked the B.C. lifestyle and environment. The following year we applied to become permanent residents. We moved here in 1996 after the Atlanta Olympics.
I haven't been back in Montreal, at all, since the playoffs ended two years ago. It's been a while.
I've seen 48 Stanley Cups in my life. I was about six or seven when I started going to games with my dad.
Toronto was a great place to work, a fun place to work. People were so hockey-oriented, hockey-minded, without being too critical. In Montreal, they got downright nasty sometimes.
I grew up in the Midwest, so we really didn't have much hockey going on.
I'm not a hockey fan, which is probably why I had to leave Canada in the first place.