A View Worth Watching

Barbara and I wish everyone a Merry Christmas.  I'm writing this from the computer at my parents' home near Toronto on a nice, relaxing Christmas morning before heading to the fun of Christmas dinner at my sister's home.

The focus of the hockey world is on Buffalo, and the World Junior Championships that get underway tomorrow.  With Canada facing Russia at the HSBC Center Sunday afternoon, we'll no doubt be sitting in heavy traffic on the Queen Elizabeth Way as we head back to Happy Valley.

While doing some web surfing this morning for Boxing Day sales, I happened onto a link to a video from a recent Ontario Hockey League Junior A game between the Guelph Storm and Kitchener Rangers.  

More on that in a moment, but first let me explain the meaning of Boxing Day.  The holiday is celebrated in Great Britain and other Commonwealth countries, including Canada.

There are varying ideas on the etymology of Boxing Day, but this from Wikipedia best describes the English tradition:

A custom of the nineteenth-century Victorians for tradesmen to collect their "Christmas boxes" or gifts on the day after Christmas in return for good and reliable service throughout the year.

Another possibility is that the name derives from an old English tradition: in exchange for ensuring that wealthy landowners' Christmases ran smoothly, their servants were allowed to take the 26th off to visit their families. The employers gave each servant a box containing gifts and bonuses (and sometimes leftover food). In addition, around the 1800s, churches opened their alms boxes (boxes where people place monetary donations) and distributed the contents to the poor.

Nowadays, Boxing Day is Canada's version of Black Friday. The malls and stores are crammed with shoppers looking for a post-Christmas bargain. I'm not sure if stores open in the wee hours of the morning. I know I wouldn't be standing in line in Winnipeg waiting for those doors to open!

OK, back to the video.  It's a penalty kill by the Guelph Storm, with the Kitchener Rangers enjoying a 2-man advantage.

The play of Storm forward Tyler Carroll redefines the term 'guts' in the hockey sense.  The Kitchener fans were so impressed with the young man that they gave him a standing ovation.