My Passion for Hockey

My love for hockey started at a young age, following the culture that my father instilled in me. My father was born in Canada and came to Israel at the age of 19 as a volunteer for Kibbutz Palmahim, where he met my mother. Since then, he has remained in Israel, and from time to time, he flies to visit his family and his childhood friends with whom he grew up. We grew up in the family on Christmas, Thanksgiving, and some of the Canadian culture my father brought with him. I have been connected to hockey since my 20s, and in the last ten years, I really got into it and became addicted to hockey, so much so that I often watch games at night or the next day. For me hockey became more than a hobby and became like a religion and a whole world that I was drawn into. I feel that this is part of one of the processes I went through in my adult life, and this process is to get closer to my father's culture and the world that he grew up in.

What attracts me to hockey is the intensity of the game and the fact that it is continuous and without breaks in the game except at the end of quarters and the occasional TV timeout. Exchanges of players are also made during a game without stopping the flow of the game and if it is stopped then it is a foul and the team responsible for it is punished by sending off a player and they play with a player's disadvantage for two minutes or until the team scores a goal. Also the special situations in extra time or there are situations of a player against a goalkeeper sometimes during a game it creates a lot of interest.

When I watch my team's hockey game then I'm in the game and nothing else matters to me. I live the game and many times find myself yelling and getting mad at the TV because of it. I feel that hockey gives me a sense of belonging to the Canadian culture in me. I also always go with my team's hockey jerseys or two Canadian hockey players I admire who are in the league and a jersey of a great hockey player who is also Canadian. I also have flags of my team and other Canadian teams that play in the professional hockey league in my apartment.