Even on a balmy June evening, it was Hockey Night in Winnipeg at the Gateway Community Centre, where hockey rinks were buzzing with sweat-drenched players.
For some parents, the thought of retiring the sports theme song resonant of their youth was appalling.
For some of their kids, however -- not so much.
"I like tradition. I don't like to change things that much, I think there's enough change going on in the world," said Rob Craig, 51. "There's been variations of it throughout the years, but it's very long-standing."
Craig was at the rink in his trusty Toronto Maple Leafs cap to watch his eight-year-old son play AAA hockey.
For him, the Hockey Night in Canada theme song harkens back to 1972, when he stopped going to his Grade 8 classes for two weeks to watch the Canada-Soviet hockey series.
Homework took a back seat for the once-in-a-lifetime experience -- and Craig doesn't regret it one bit.
"Every time I hear the theme on TV, I look back and I think of the Bobby Orrs and the Espositos and the Gretzkys," he said. His friend Ron Holzer, 41, said the song is seared into the memories of devoted hockey fans.
"When you hear it Saturday night, you know it's time to get down to the TV set and watch the game," he said.
For Alexee Klassen, 13, an AAA forward at Gateway, it took a bit of prompting to remember the notorious tune.
When it was hummed for her by a reporter and Klassen was asked if she recognized it, she paused.
"Not really. No, yeah, actually, I do," she said. Would she miss it?
"Yeah, kind-of," she said.
Instead, Klassen said she likes to warm up for hockey games to music by Lil Wayne, a Southern hip-hop artist whose current gangsta rap hit Lollipop is at the top of the charts.
But Debbie Peters, 33, a self-described "hockey mom," said the theme song is a musical rite of passage.
Standing with a small group of other hockey moms, she burst into tune when the subject was broached.
"When you have a baby, you sing a lullaby. When you're Canadian, you sing the Hockey Night in Canada song," she said.
gabrielle.giroday@freepress.mb.ca
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