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Flower power

By Helene Elliott
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One of Canada’s finest traditions -- along with drinking Tim Horton’s coffee and saying ‘eh’ at the end of every sentence -- was on display Saturday at Staples Center when the Kings faced the Calgary Flames.

Coaches on both teams wore a red poppy on the left lapel of their jacket, a symbol of the Nov. 11 Remembrance Day holiday. The day honors the sacrifices of veterans and civilians during wartime and is pegged to the day the armistice was signed to end World War I.

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The poppy commemorates the poppies described in the poem ‘In Flanders Fields,’ written by a Canadian physician, John MacRae, during World War I.

Canadians start wearing the poppies about two weeks before the holiday, and it’s remarkable how many you’ll see when walking down the street of any Canadian city.

-- 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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