Finally we got to see Stanley Cup Playoff action North of the border last night when the Winnipeg Jets and Edmonton Oilers took the ice for Game One. While most other playoff matchups were entering Game Two or Three, the Oilers and Jets dropped the puck for Game One and tonight, we get the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens beginning their series as well.
• Watching the games on TV, changing from a game held in the U.S. with fans in the stands to a game in Canada with no fans in the arena was a trip. The artificial sounds in arenas were not that obvious when it was every area doing it earlier this season, but now after hearing fans cheer on the Playoffs again in person, the fake crowds in Canada are just not the same. The atmosphere is completely different and I hope that Montreal and Toronto can get to a Game Six, so fans can be in attendance at the Bell Centre when the time comes.
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First, a bit of history:
The major league annals include just two players born in Slovakia. One of them is Elmer Valo, an outfielder for six teams from 1940-1961 who hailed from the village of Rybnik. The other is Jack Quinn (born Johannes Pajkos), a pitcher for eight teams from 1909-1933 who drew his first breaths 333 kilometers away in Štefurov. Both came to the United States at a young age, their families settling in the Pennsylvania.
Adam Macko hopes to follow in their footsteps, albeit via pathways. A native of Bratislava, Slovakia, Macko moved to Stoney Plain, Alberta, Canada when he was 12 years old a year in Ireland bridging the Atlantic journey and then to the southern part of the province where he spent three years at the Vauxhall Baseball Academy before being selected by Seattle in the seventh round of the 2019 draft.