O Canada: “Sports Bind Us Together in our Pain and Heartache”

By Grushin @ Shutterstock.com

In his wonderful tribute to the 16 members of Canada’s hockey community killed in a tragic bus crash—10 were players of the Humboldt Broncos heading to a playoff game in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League Playoffs—Aaron Gleason of The Federalist, writes “Canada is hockey and hockey is Canada.”

Think of the Dallas Cowboys, Los Angeles Lakers, New York Yankees, and Notre Dame Fighting Irish, explains Gleason, “Now Imagine that there was one team that embodied all this money, fame, scrutiny, hate and love. That is what the Toronto Maple Leafs are to Canada.”

On Monday night, my household was tuned in to NESN well before the drop of the puck at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto. The Boston Bruins were facing the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Leafs’ first home playoff game since the Broncos tragedy. As is tradition, the singer performed the visiting team’s national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner first, then, all she did was begin “O Canada” and the crowd took over. It was awesome.

Five years ago, after The Boston Marathon Bombing, Gleason reminds us, it was Boston Garden fixture Rene Rancourt, who will be retiring at the close of this season, performing The Star Spangled Banner before the crowd took over.

Gleason writes:

That night the Bruins’ fans took over the “Star Spangled Banner” from the legendary Rene Rancourt, just like Toronto did this week. This is the real importance of sports. It binds us together in our pain and heartache. And it does so with something that ultimately doesn’t matter that much. It turns out that the things that don’t matter that much actually end up mattering a lot. A flag is just some cloth. A song is just some sounds. A sports team just plays a game. But when we need them their symbolism become medicine. We’re all in this life together. Boston made that clear by creating a charity campaign for the Broncos’ survivors.

Boston Bruins post-Marathon Ceremony 4-17-13 #BostonStrong

Originally posted on Yoursurvivalguy.com.

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E.J. Smith is the Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH, where he completed course-work in Practical and Defensive Handgun, Conceal Carry Pistol, Shotguns, Precision Scope Rifle and Kidnapping Prevention. E.J. plays a Yamaha Recording Custom drum set with Zilldjian cymbals. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zilldjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@youngresearch.com. Sign up here to receive all the best content from Richardcyoung.com each week.