The best baseball player today is from Japan (Ohtani)
The best basketball player today is from Serbia (Jokic)
The most accomplished football player ever is from California (Brady)
Our three major sports, and not one of these guys is from America.
Sad.
It seems America is just waking up to hockey culture and it is honestly adorable. As a long time hockey mom let me break it down for you.
Hockey moms know there are more head injuries than football and yet we still gleefully drag our kids out of bed at 4 am to drive to a stinky rink in East Bumfuck just to play the same crappy team we played last week and will play again next week. Hockey played straight through the entire pandemic because the laws of contagion do not apply on the ice. Every hockey team has one dedicated "vodka dad " with a spiked Dunkin cup and a dream that no one notices. Every hockey team is also assigned "that mom" who will storm the ice in her sneakers to yell at a coach, a player, or most likely her own child for being out of line. Do not let "vodka dad" and "that mom" sit next to each other, it will not end well.
Hockey is a world that has never offered more than two gender options. In hockey when the kids get in a fight they get a five minute penalty to sit in the box, swearing and throwing their gear around before skating right back onto the ice while all the parents sit in the stands and laugh. This is hockey, and when the president invites you to the White House, you go. Because most of the time you just got a cold piece of pizza and a stupid medal even when you won the whole damn thing.