Quote:
Originally Posted by Cali Panthers Fan
Case in point:
Shayne Gostisbehere (Pembroke Pines-basically Fort Lauderdale), Quinn and Jack Hughes (Orlando) and Jakob Chychrun (Boca Raton) are all Florida born players, not to mention Garnet Hathaway (Naples). They were all born in the 90's after teams had been in the area for a few years. It's not hard to make the connection. The most successful Florida-born player before that was Dan Hinote born in 1977.
It's taken some time to produce NHL talent, but I know lots of kids who are now playing in youth hockey programs here. I don't expect it to resemble Canadian culture anytime soon, but to say that hockey cannot grow here and quality players cannot be produced here is just bull####...and honestly, defensive and wishful thinking on the part of Canadians.
The rest of the world is catching up to Canada, and with it being an almost singular piece of Canadian identity, many are becoming emotional and irrational about it.
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Easy there Butch. That's a pretty broad brush you are using there.
I think its great that hockey is making its way throughout every part of NA and indeed, other parts of the world.
There are, by far, WAY more minor pro teams in the sunbelt than there are in all of Canada. No its not NHL, but it is hockey...and thats the point of expansion to these areas and it has worked in spades.
Maybe the poster who hates it and sees it as detrimental would prefer a Canadian only pro league? Good luck with that though, likely wouldn't last more than a couple years when having to compete for players with US based teams.