Yet there is a fatalism about Canadians that extends beyond hockey. To a child of celebrated parents (England and France’s progeny), raised in the shadow of a southern colossus (America’s neighbor), others have always seemed to do things bigger and better; others always would. So, never precocious, never rebellious, reasonably content, we ride their coattails and do pretty well. In hockey, now that we’ve been caught from behind, we wonder why it took so long.
