Thanks to Mike Klass for passing along this clip of the crowd at Rexall responding to the guy singing "O Canada" by bringing it home on their own:
Absolutely stirring. I'm a proud American, but for me, "O Canada" will always be the international anthem of ice hockey. Be it ever so.
POSTSCRIPT: The man singing his guts out behind the Oilers bench is Joey Moss. Click here for his story.
Point of clarification:
The Canadian anthem is “O Canada”, not “Oh Canada”.
It’s a common mistake. I was travelling in California when the flap over Shark fans booing the anthem erupted and every paper I saw used “Oh”.
I love the simplicity of the Canadian Anthem, it seems like a much easier song to sing than the SSB, and I’ve never heard a “look at me” version of the song like you hear done to the US anthem so often. Plus I think it’s great that their song has God in it and you don’t hear the “CCLU” threaten to sue over it.
Actually, there is debate in Canada about removing “God” from the lyrics; and changing the phrase “In all their son’s command” to make it non-gender specific.
The PC police are everywhere.
Fixed the mistake. Thanks for the clarification.
Wow, that’s goose-bumb stuff. I wish the American broadcasts would show the anthems.
Check out the few seconds about 56 seconds in when the camera passes past Ryan Smyth on the bench. You can see Joey Moss in the background belting out the words at the top of his lungs. Kevin Lowe brought it up and I think it is pretty cool.
Great, great stuff – who wants to bet that tradition continues forever?
Maybe not during regular season games. But I do have this feeling that this is something that’ll definitely continue each and every time the Oilers make it into the playoffs and have a home game. That’d actually be quite exciting, too. First game in Edmonton of each series they make it to, the crowd just belts it out at the top of their lungs.
Amazing clip. The fans in Edmonton are incredible.