Hockey is without a doubt the biggest and most popular sport throughout Canada. One could tell this just from all the chaos that came out of our men and women's teams winning the gold metals at the Olympics. I felt that this assignment should be done on a topic that I truly love and enjoy, so that I would not have a problem having enough material to write about. Since the sport of hockey is growing around the world, I decided to find out how big of a role our country still plays in this amazing game. Are we losing our game to the rest of the world? Or is our game just expanding and maturing? In this assignment I intend on analyzing three separate articles that deal with these questions. One article deals with the rivalry between Canada and the U.S.A. Another deals with the game itself here in Canada and the third article deals with the increase in European players to the NHL.
             Since the NHL is the highest level in professional hockey today, all of the articles deal with this league. The Stanley Cup, hockey's Holy Grail, is the oldest trophy competed for by professional athletes in North America, predating by seven years tennis' Davis Cup. It is competed for each year by the two teams that make it to the NHL playoff finals. Dating back to 1892, the Stanley Cup has provided one thing above all else, drama. Although there is no definite place of the birth of hockey, it was definitely started somewhere in eastern Canada. Throughout the years hockey has always had a place here in Toronto. With the Hockey Hall of Fame being located here in our great city, plus all of the greats who have originated from here, people from all over the world look at Toronto as being one of the biggest hockey cities in the world. Toronto, being one of the original six teams along with Detroit, New York, Montreal, Chicago and Boston is the reason that the Maple Leafs has always been greatly respected here.
             Article # 1- Canada's Goose Is Cooked...