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Hockey Night in Southern California

By Helene Elliott
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Any hockey fan will tell you that telecasts on Canadian networks are infinitely better than U.S. telecasts. If you’ve ever watched ‘Hockey Night in Canada’ you know that it’s almost a religious experience.

Every Saturday during hockey season that I’m in town, my husband and I brew Tim Horton’s coffee, plug in our neon Hockey Night in Canada kitchen clock and settle in front of the TV for a full night of pucks. Everything stops when Don Cherry appears after the first period, and we keep watching through the terrific ‘After Hours’ segment, which follows the West Coast game.

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So we joined our Canadian brothers and sisters in feeling horrified when the CBC dropped the traditional Hockey Night in Canada theme song after a royalties dispute with the song’s composer, Dolores Claman. The CBC is holding a contest to choose a new ‘anthem,’ and the five finalists can be heard here.

No. 2 ‘Sticks to the Ice’ is stirring -- and it was composed by a 13-year-old kid. No. 4, ‘Let the Game Begin,’ is pretty good too. You can vote at the site, too.

-- Helene Elliott

Sports Now
Helene Elliott

Helene Elliott was with the Los Angeles Times’ Sports department from 1989 to 2024, first as a staff writer and then, starting in 2006, as a columnist. She became the first female journalist to be honored with a plaque in the Hall of Fame of a major professional sport as the 2005 winner of the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Elmer Ferguson Award, awarded to writers “who have brought honor to journalism and to hockey.” A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, she has covered 18 Olympics.

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