Hockey as a Community

Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News has an interesting article about how hockey serves as a de facto community in non-traditional hockey markets. Read the article here.

Some people will tell you sports don’t mean a lick in the grand scheme of things.

Intellectual Noam Chomsky is famous for derailing pro games as a means of controlling the minds of the masses, throwing them off the “real issues” of the day.

The funny thing is, sometimes it’s the masses who truly need what sports provides; pride and community.

I mean, if you’re an affluent Chicago Cubs fan, or a Bay St. lawyer at a Maple Leafs game, you can live and die with your team on a superficial level and then go home to a nice, safe environment.

But for the same reason it was so important for the New Orleans Saints to play after Hurricane Katrina, hockey teams in many American towns right now are playing a key role in giving a lot of folks just a little daylight during some dark days.

I think Kennedy makes a good point. Hockey players and people always seem to gravitate towards each other.