Soccer has been called The Beautiful Game and I have no axe to grind with that. It is a beautiful game. Elegant in its simplicity- two teams, two nets and a ball if you’re unschooled in the finer aspects as I am.
However, on the day that Stompin’ Tom passed on, I’d like hockey to receive it’s due in a similar way. I believe no more wonderful description of hockey has been put into words and song than his line from The Hockey Song where he describes it as “The best game you can play”.
I cannot say I was a lifelong Stompin’ Tom fan, and really only became familiar with the song in my adult life. However, when my kids were young, we played all his good ones to them at night after bath time and created some great memories in the process. With hockey being a fairly important topic around this house, The Hockey Song was one of those go-to songs when we wanted a tune to put a smile on our faces.
Here’s to Stompin’ Tom and may his hockey song play eternally in rinks across Canada.
Rink Tales 