Newcomers feeling Canadian during playoff hockey

Mykhailo Ivanov never thought he'd become a diehard hockey fan.

TORONTO – Mykhailo Ivanov never thought he’d become a diehard hockey fan.

The 42-year-old had immigrated to Winnipeg a little over two years ago to escape the war in Ukraine. He didn’t know much about hockey, he said, but after he was given tickets to a Jets game he fell in love with the sport – and the community that comes with it.

“I like that kind of emotion and support from other fans, from the people nearby you,” he said in a phone interview. “It’s an important part of my life now.”

“It decreases or even erases those boundaries, those limits newcomers normally face.”

As three Canadian teams fight their way through the NHL playoffs, fans across the country are cheering from the sidelines, including those who newly call Canada home.

Some immigrants say that just as hockey is a part of Canadian identity, celebrating the sport during playoff season helps them become part of it, too.

Christine Munsch said when she and her husband first moved to Toronto from France about 18 months ago, they tried watching football and basketball to help them adjust to Canadian life. But it was hockey that had them hooked, she said.

“We knew it was a big part of Canadian culture,” she said in a phone interview. “I was really amazed by the quality of skating and this balance between well-done choreography and a sometimes violent game.”