Stanely Cup - cool fans

I'm not much of a hockey fan, but I watched the game last night.

Henry...

Apparently not since you misspelled "Stanley Cup" in your subject
line....

The game was in Edmonton, and at the beginning when they sang
the Canadian national anthem the singer stopped halfway through
and the crowd blasted out the rest of it (even hitting the high notes lol).

That was pretty freakin cool, eh!

Henry...

Pretty remarkable. I still remember when they played the national
anthem before every public event, including movies in movie theatres.
But fewer and fewer people would even bother to stand during the
anthem. No one was actually expected to sing along, just stand quietly,
but many people apparently found that tedious so they gradually stopped
playing the national anthem at the vast majority of public events,
except perhaps hockey games, which I never attend.

In fact, O Canada is so rarely played these days that most people don't
even know the words. I certainly don't, thanks to the "new improved

Howard U. Dewing...

Americans sing the National Anthem at all the NASCAR races. Sunday's
event in Michigan even included O Canada because the venue is only a few
miles from the border.

The Edmonton phenomenon began when some Americans booed O Canada during
an earlier playoff round. When the teams got back to Edmonton, fans
here cheered the SSB and enthusiatically sang O Canada. A couple of
games later, the O Canada was so loud, Paul Lorieau stopped leading
after a few bars and the fans took over.

Henry...

Who's Paul Lorieau? The official anthem singer for the Oilers? I don't
follow sports....

By Saturday night, he almost didn't need to lead the SSB either.

Henry...

What is the "SSB"? Saskatchewan Science Bureau? Standard Silliness
Brigade?

cloud dreamer...

Star Spangled Banner.

Henry...

As Homer Simpson would say: "D'oh!".

...and most people *do* know the words. The Reform Party, and later the
Canadian Alliance, made it a practice to sing O Canada at the start of
all their political meetings.

Henry...

Do they still do that in their current incarnation as The Conservative
Party of Canada?

cloud dreamer...

Given how they've cozied up to the Bloc, it would be hypocritical of
them to sing Oh Canada at any time.

Henry...

Hypocrisy and politics aren't exactly mutually exclusive. In fact, they
seem to be very closely connected. I could well imagine the
Conservatives still singing O Canada at every meeting, even if they are
on speaking terms with the Bloc, just to prove that they haven't sold
their souls to the Bloc.

I have not heard the national anthem sung anywhere in this country in
at least 30 years. I don't go to hockey games and I think that's the
only place where it is still sung in public, unless the Conservatives
are doing it at their meetings.

I haven't been to a political rally since 1980 and I've only been to
three in my life (one NDP and two Liberal); I don't recall O Canada
being sung at those either.

Maybe the hockey fans in this country still sing the national anthem -
and I know there are lots of hockey fans - but, for people like me who
don't go to hockey games, there seem to be darned few chances to sing
the national anthem.

That's pretty sad, I think. I'm proud of this country but our
determination to distance ourselves from traits that we see as
excessively American, like singing the national anthem on occasion,
seems rather negative at times.

lyrics" that they wrote several years ago. Someone thought that
removing a few of the "we stand on guard for thee" lines would make the
song more interesting but they never made much of an effort to share
the new lyrics with people so I don't even know my own national anthem
any more. (I could look it up of course but since no one sings it any
more, why bother?)

It's all well and good to be above "petty nationalism" or "American
patriotic fervour" but I think we go too far sometimes....

Steve...

Big change from the 80's when they were winning every year and the Oilers
fans were widely criticized for being too quiet.

Hockey does have the best trophy of all sports, with the history/mythology
of
Lord Stanley's cup. The winners get the cup, and take it to bars and let
everyone
drink champagne and stuff like that ( I touched it at Cobo Joe's a few years
ago).