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Canadian Superstars rally around Flames in spite of team’s loss (Trish excerpts)
by Phil Speer
June 11, 2004

“It’s just a national pride thing,” Trish Stratus said. “Hockey is Canada’s game. To bring the Cup home to Canada is where we feel it rightfully belongs.”

Stratus, born and bred in Toronto and a fan of the city’s Maple Leafs, was rooting for the Leafs. Like many (or most) Canadians, she jumped on the Flames’ bandwagon once her team was eliminated from the playoffs. “But as a Canadian I’m allowed to,” she said.

Stratus isn’t the only one who jumped on the bandwagon. According to Storm, even though the celebration was especially pronounced in Calgary - where you could walk down any street on game day and hear the play call, because the TV was literally on in every house -- fans throughout the country were rooting for the Flames so vehemently that they might as well have been called the “Canadian Flames.”

“We don’t have a lot as Canadians - we have our beer, we have our hockey and so forth - so the fact that a Canadian team is back in the finals after 10 years (is huge),” he said.

Plus, the entire country is something of a melting pot, Stratus said. “That’s what we pride ourselves on … being one,” she said, adding, “I always say I have a hometown that’s a country because everywhere I go, I always get a hometown reception.”

The countrywide celebration over the Flames is also due in part to economic factors.

“Calgary hadn’t even made the playoffs” in previous years, Stratus said. “It’s small-market team making it big … It shows a lot of determination on the part of the players.”

“I made this joke the other day,” Stratus said. “I said the only way Chris Jericho and I would ever make up again is if he offered me a ticket to the Stanley Cup finals.

Even though the Flames did not win the Cup, the city and country are no doubt still proud of them. WWE’s Canadian Superstars certainly are.

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