hockey posts

For hockey fans, the holy grail is the Stanley Cup.

Awarded to winning teams since 1893, the Stanley Cup is the trophy every hockey player wants to hold at least once in their career.

As the playoffs for this year's Cup run are fiercely fought on rinks across North America, the Stanley Cup waits in the Hockey Hall of Fame, preparing for the next group of names to be engraved on it.

For those of us who can't see it in person, the Hockey Hall of Fame has an online tour, so anyone can look at the cup up close from any angle.

So what secrets are held within this hockey trophy?

Get ready for the PVR wars.

Major TV service providers Shaw, Telus and Bell– among others – have started duking it out for positions in Canada's expanding personal video recorder market. Consumers appear likely to benefit from the increasing competition, wider service options, and over time lower prices.

One third of hockey moms and dads say they need to dig deep into their pockets in order to afford the costs of involving their kids in Canada's most popular sport, according to a survey.

In other words, of the roughly 577,000 kids enrolled in minor hockey, the parents of about 192,350 of them are struggling to meet the costs.

So how much are Canadians paying to send their kids along to the game?

When it comes to sports, big money is at stake even when we're not dealing with highly-paid athletes.

You've got a boy, and he's been dreaming about winning the Stanley Cup. But he's got to start somewhere.

So you decide the best place to start is with skates. You go to Sportchek and quickly realize that the cheapest pair would set you back about $70, give or take. If your child persists that the National Hockey League is his goal, you're looking at spending up to $400. You try the other end of the spectrum, Wal-mart, for example. You can get all the way down to about $40, annoying your kid to no end in the process. Canadian Tire has similar costs.

CTV has released its list of the most popular television broadcasts for 2010, revealing the TV watching habits of Canadians.

So what is it we like to watch? Turns out it is sports, more sports, and a bit of celebrity. But what's missing from the list is just as telling. What don't Canadians like to watch?

Unfortunately, the answer is Canadian TV shows.

With the exception of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics which dominated the year -- even if it was just a one-off historical blip -- only four Canadian broadcasts in a list of 70 programs made it into CTV's list of most watched TV shows and events. No homegrown sitcoms made the list.

The two best performing Canadian broadcasts were both sports related. The Grey Cup garnered a respectable turnout of 5,027,200, making it the fourth most watched broadcast of the entire year (excluding the Olympics). Meanwhile, the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship twice made it into the list of most watched sporting events for 2010 -- once for the gold medal game vs. the U.S., and also for the playoff against Switzerland. Even so, it came in behind the Superbowl showdown between New Orleans and Indianapolis with an audience of 6,297,400.

I hate to be the one to turn your mind to all things frosty and icy, but seeing as how October has popped upon the calendar this morning, it's not completely out of place to start contemplating winter sports.

Apparently, Sport Chek is of the same chilly mindset. This weekend (October 2 and 3), it is offering free skate sharpening. There is a limit of three per customer (assuming they mean pairs, not individual skates...).

For Sport Chek locations, click here.