Can my Italian cousin learn to love hockey?

Roberto and me at Canadian Tire trying to find out if he shoots left of right.

Hockey is to Canada what the one ring is to Gollum from The Lord of the Rings.

Many Canadians adore hockey, and for some of us it has become an obsession and an important part of our individual identities.

We also are fiercely protective of it.  We believe that we share a bond with hockey that is unique and special.  We believe that we have an understanding of hockey that makes us the best at it.  We are terrified that someone might take that away from us.

I have heard many Canadians say hockey will never take hold in the southern United States.  If hockey really is the great sport we believe it is, shouldn’t it be able to thrive in any market?

I am guilty of this type of thinking too.  Every four years I see the gap between the Canadian men’s Olympic hockey team and the teams from Sweden, Russia, and the United States get smaller and smaller.  This scares me, but shouldn't I be happy that the popularity of hockey is growing and the talent pool is getting deeper? 

My cousin Roberto is trying to learn about hockey.  Roberto is a dual Italian and Canadian citizen who grew up in Italy and went to high school in England.  For the next while he will be living with my mother, father, brother, sister and me in Winnipeg. 

So far, Roberto has played street hockey (after three games we discovered he actually shoots left), joined a hockey pool (his drafting strategy involved cross-referencing a player's ranking in a magazine with how funny he thought their names were) and watched lots of games on TV with my brother Thomas and me.  

Today he played EA Sports NHL 14 on Xbox for the first time. 

While the video game taught Roberto some important concepts like icing, offside (different than soccer), and player positioning, his hockey video game skills are a work in progress.

In our final game, Roberto and a friend played against Thomas and me.   Roberto’s team played with the NHL Legends team; a group of NHL superstars past and present that includes Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux.  Thomas and I used the Straubing Tigers, a team from the German Ice Hockey League featuring no one I have ever heard of.

The Straubing Tigers defeated the NHL Legends 3-1.

Despite this defeat Roberto is making progress.  He increasingly understands what is happening when he is watching games on TV and his fantasy team that includes Dustin Byfuglien (Bye-foo-glee-in) is currently beating mine by forty-seven points.

Next Roberto wants to go to a live game and try ice-hockey for the first time despite not really being able to skate.

Stay tuned.