Canada ping!
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Posted on 06/19/2006 1:14:27 PM PDT by fanfan
If the Stanley Cup is headed to Edmonton for a victory parade this week, could one of the storied trophy's next stops be 10,500 kilometres away in this baking dust bowl in the Afghan desert?
The universal wish of the Edmonton-based Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry battle group is that their Oilers win Lord Stanley of Preston's silver chalice when they play Game 7 against the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh, N.C., tonight. If the Oilers are victorious, the troops are optimistic the team will add another chapter to the Cup's colourful 113-year history by bringing it - and a few of their favourite players - to their heavily defended base on the outskirts of Kandahar.
"It would be huge to have the Cup here," said Sgt. Mark Pharoah, who normally works at the garrison in Edmonton. "It would be darn good for morale."
During the Oilers' 4-0 triumph in Game 6 of the final - shown here live before dawn yesterday - Pharoah said, the cheering was so loud from fans watching in Canada House that "there wasn't a sleeping soldier in the entire Canadian tent lines."
And why not despatch the Stanley Cup to Afghanistan? After all, the venerable trophy has been thrown on to the frozen Rideau Canal in Ottawa and into the swimming pools of Mario Lemieux and Patrick Roy, has visited a strip club with Mark Messier, spent time in an igloo in the High Arctic and been to the White House to meet three U.S. presidents. It has even been to Moscow's Red Square several times, and only two months ago it was returned to its original home in England, where it was hoisted by Lord Stanley's great-great grandson, the 19th earl of Derby.
"It should come to Kandahar because there are no bigger hockey fans in the world than there are here," said Tammy Howard, who works as a civilian cashier for the Canadian Forces Personnel Support Agency.
Bombardier Bill Hill, a 26-year-old reservist from the Kenora, Ont.-based 116th Independent Field Battery, not only wants the Cup to come to Kandahar, he wants it to be escorted here by Chris Pronger, the Oilers towering defenceman who is from Hill's hometown, Dryden, Ont. He also wants the NHLers to play a ball-hockey tournament with some of the troops.
"With so many of the guys being from Edmonton, the Oilers have tons of support here," Hill said. "But we are all cheering for the Oilers because they are a Canadian team."
The NHL already has an Afghan connection. Former Toronto Maple Leaf and Vancouver Canuck Tiger Williams visited the old Canadian base in Kabul two years ago, and Canadiens great Guy Lafleur played ball hockey at Canada's Provincial Reconstruction base in Kandahar last year.
Thinking about hockey in a windblown moonscape where daytime temperatures can touch 50 degrees Celsius is not so easy. One of the difficulties is that the games from North America are usually shown before breakfast. Another complication is that many of the front-line warriors are in the middle of spearheading the biggest coalition offensive against the Taliban since it was ousted from power not long after terrorists attacked the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon in September 2001.
Game 7 of the Stanley Cup series will be telecast live in Afghanistan at Canada House tomorrow morning at 4:30 local time (it's on at 8 p.m. tonight in Montreal).
But Canada House, which is a relatively small, tube-shaped army tent with some flags and hockey memorabilia on the walls, can accommodate only about 100 soldiers at a time. Officials were looking for a way more of the 2,200 troops deployed here could catch the game.
With the base being dry, the beverage of choice for watching hockey is bottled water.
Back in Edmonton, though, those who chose to worship their beloved team with alcohol and rowdy behaviour on the Alberta capital's trendy Whyte Ave. kept police busy.
Officers arrested 394 of the more than 30,000 triumphant fans who congregated in the area Saturday night, high-fiving and chanting "We want the Cup!"
Most of the arrests were for liquor-related offences. Of those, only six people were charged - for assaulting an officer, resisting arrest, mischief under $5,000 and outstanding warrants.
Edmonton police have launched an internal investigation into one altercation, where an officer slapped a handcuffed woman in the head, then threw her to the ground, leaving her bloodied.
Edmonton Journal photographer Jimmy Jeong witnessed the incident. The woman was among a group of people who were arrested then shipped off to spend the night in jail.
A police officer came to walk the woman to the bus. Her hands were secured behind her back with plastic cuffs.
At one point the woman turned to say something to the officer. The officer then cranked his arm to strike, Jeong says.
"It seemed unprovoked," Jeong says. "She was in handcuffs. There was no way she was doing anything."
Canada ping!
Please FReepmail me to get on or off this Canada ping list.
NICE!!
Hockey.. that's like Hurling!! ;)
That's where it comes from, but you knew that.
Good thing they don't call it "Hurling Night in Canada"!
That happens after the game, when the fans have had too much beer.
;-)
Good thing they don't call it "Hurling Night in Canada"!
That happens after the game, when the fans have had too much beer.
Yeah, I thought someone was going to make a 'hurling' joke! ;)
OK I think it's great the Canadians are helping us out in Afghanistan, and I'm glad there's a new conservative movement afoot and all that....
But man oh man, who in their right mind would name an infantry division "Princess" anything?
They are leaving themselves wide open on this one.
Resisting Arrest? Woman you hadn't enough sense just to keep walking? She will be charged.
Oilers UP! Good Luck lads!
It comes from our British Monarchy history.
They are one of our best and toughest infantry groups.
The Oilers will.
That settles it, I'm cheering for the Oilers.
Not sure if you've been pinged on this yet or not...
I've read a lot of history.
May the best team win.
There will be more than a few Fort Bragg based troops pulling for the 'Canes.
Two storm flags are going up all the poles around here.
Thanks to CurlyBill for pinging me on this one. Hope all you hockey ping-listers get a chance to watch game 7 tonight. 50 or so very lucky men have they opportunity that they all dreamed about as boys to play one game for the chance to have their name inscribed on the greatest trophy in all of sports. It's gonna be a great one. 13 game 7's - since the league went to a 7 game final series - home team has won 11 of them.
More than that, let's hope and pray that each one of those Canadian men and women watching this game in Afghanistan get to come home safe and sound.
Freep mail/ping airborne or Hat-Trick if you want on or off the Hockey Ping List.
Thanks for the ping! Great article.
I'm pulling for the Canes, but it would be INCREDIBLE to have the Stanley Cup visit the Canadian troops overseas.
At Last a subject i know alot about GO OILERS.
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