Ice HockeyNHL
In a video, all the excitement of Kenya's only hockey team when they meet Crosby and MacKinnon for a very special surprise.
Monday 29 October 2018 5 minutes reading time
The passion for hockey has no boundaries. It is a sport that we fall in love at the first glance. Even the most skeptical, after a while, hears a flame ignite inside. Hockey is experienced intensely both on the track and in the stands. Or in front of a TV. It is therefore not surprising to find teams and enthusiasts in Southern Italy or in even more extreme cases in Mexico, Australia or even in Africa. Yeah, right there. In the continent that perhaps most of all we identify with the heat, the deserts, the savannah. The Lions. And in this story the lions are there. But it is the Ice Lions of Nairobi, Kenya. Ice lions. A group of boys who for no apparent reason chose to play hockey instead of football. Or running marathons. Obviously they are alone in this "madness", the only team in Kenya. Or rather, they were. Because in August the Canadian chain that sells coffee and donuts Tim Hortons (founded by the famous Maple Leafs player, the team with which he won 4 Stanley Cup, who died in a traffic accident in 1974 at just 44) decided to give them a gift : He took them to Canada for a game against an amateur fire brigade team, delivering them T-shirts, sticks, pucks, helmets. But above all, making them a surprise they will always remember: playing with two of the strongest NHL strikers, Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon. In the short film that we propose on this page (and that we do not just recommend you to watch, but we order it!) Is not priced to see the excited look of those Kenyan players at the sight of the two champions when they suddenly enter the locker room wearing an Ice Lions shirt.
Everyone in Nairobi now talks about them. Many children, but also adults, have become curious and are approaching ice hockey. Before August, the Ice Lions did not even have a doorman. They arranged with a rubber penguin. If the puck touched him, it was a goal. Now Tim Hortons and CCM have also given them a goalkeeper set and two guys are learning the role techniques by watching videos on YouTube. And the NHL games in streaming, just like we do in Italy.
It is only a matter of time until a second team is formed. But Benard Azegere, one of the Ice Lions pioneers, goes much further and explains that in a few months they have already set up a youth movement. There is also a female team from Kenya. And Azegere is trying to put together other teams from South Africa, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia to create an African tournament, with only local players. "I think everything is possible," says Azegere. "It will not happen this year and not even next year. But believe me: the moment will come when you will remember this day because Kenya will participate in the Olympics ".
The passion for hockey has no boundaries. And not even limits.
NHLITALIA #NHL TIMHORTONS #KENYAICELIONS
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