15 Canadian things America should trade for to form a pop culture super team

8. Baseball for hockey

So, this may require a little bit of backstory. I’m originally from the Finger Lakes region of New York, a particularly beautiful (no, I’m not biased) part of the state that includes Rochester and Cornell University. My particular hometown was only about an hour from the Canadian border, via Niagara Falls. Though my community was undeniably American, there was also no hiding the influence of our Canadian friends.

Of course, there was always hockey. This means that I may be especially biased here, so take the following statements with a considerable grain of salt.

It’s true that American hockey can be hit-or-miss. There are some fantastic teams here in the states, like the Pittsburgh Penguins. Others are, well, shaky at best.

But Canada has a lock on the game. After all, when a country is in the grip of winter for seemingly endless stretches of time, it’s only natural that its citizens latch onto an ice-bound game like hockey.

So, why baseball? I know that it’s a quintessentially American game and that many, many inhabitants of the U.S. are big fans of the sport. Alas, however, I have rarely made it through a game of baseball and remained awake. Often, baseball is entirely too predictable. Perhaps this is a personal failing more than anything else – maybe I shouldn’t have ordered that beer, after all. At any rate, I’m certainly not going to try and take your beloved baseball from you in real life.

Still, give hockey a try. No, I’m not that interested in the much-publicized violence of the game, which is becoming thankfully more and more infrequent. Rather, hockey is a fast-paced and often dramatic game.