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Hockey Night in Southern California

By Helene Elliott
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This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Any hockey fan will tell you that telecasts on Canadian networks are infinitely better than U.S. telecasts. If you’ve ever watched ‘Hockey Night in Canada’ you know that it’s almost a religious experience.

Every Saturday during hockey season that I’m in town, my husband and I brew Tim Horton’s coffee, plug in our neon Hockey Night in Canada kitchen clock and settle in front of the TV for a full night of pucks. Everything stops when Don Cherry appears after the first period, and we keep watching through the terrific ‘After Hours’ segment, which follows the West Coast game.

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So we joined our Canadian brothers and sisters in feeling horrified when the CBC dropped the traditional Hockey Night in Canada theme song after a royalties dispute with the song’s composer, Dolores Claman. The CBC is holding a contest to choose a new ‘anthem,’ and the five finalists can be heard here.

No. 2 ‘Sticks to the Ice’ is stirring -- and it was composed by a 13-year-old kid. No. 4, ‘Let the Game Begin,’ is pretty good too. You can vote at the site, too.

-- Helene Elliott

Sports Now
Helene Elliott

Helene Elliott was with the Los Angeles Times’ Sports department from 1989 to 2024, first as a staff writer and then, starting in 2006, as a columnist. She became the first female journalist to be honored with a plaque in the Hall of Fame of a major professional sport as the 2005 winner of the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Elmer Ferguson Award, awarded to writers “who have brought honor to journalism and to hockey.” A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, she has covered 18 Olympics.

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