I think there’s a reason that hockey is on the waiting room t.v. in a hospital on Montreal, Quebec.  It’s calming; a way for nervous family members to think about something they love almost as much as their sick mother or father.

The game on also happens to be the Boston-Pittsburgh match-up.  Sidney Crosby, captain of the Penguins, is coming off scoring the winning goal in the Olympic gold medal game against the U.S. last week, and is not playing stellarly, but it doesn’t really matter.

The New York Times published an article following the Canadian gold medal victory about the sport’s culture in that nation.  Sure, we have baseball in America, the article says, but we have nothing that rivals the hockey tradition in Canada.

Children to our north are given skates before they can walk, hockey sticks before they can write, and bred to be diehard Habs, Maple Leafs, or Oilers fans from infancy (No kidding, you can get sippy cups, pacifiers, onesies, and anything else with the team logos plastered on them).

For Canadians, hockey is more than a sport-it’s a religion.  Hockey Night in Canada has as many viewers as all of the churches in Canada on a Sunday and Don Cherry’s infamous style stands in for the drab robes of usual pastors.  And watchers treat Cherry as a priest-anxiously awaiting intermission to hear his homily of commentary, predictions, and gossip.

The people in this waiting room are generally silent, except for random sentences-presumably about the condition of their loved one.  Then something not so surprising happens.  They start talking about the game.

Somber faces turn to eager ones waiting for the replay of the last goal or fight.  People united only by the fact that they must wait on these blue sofas for news, debate the merits of each team.

So sure…there are Torahs waiting for visitors in a nearby bookshelf, but it seems as though the NHL and the tradition of hockey might be all they need to get through the hard times.