As narrator Bill Camp says in the second episode of EPIX's "Road to the NHL Outdoor Classics," which premiered last Friday, "Remember faith in all the game can promise you, trust in what it can do to you, and fantasies about where it can take you. That's how it all began. And beginnings are everything."
That's exactly where we start, with a new beginning, a new tradition, when some members of the Maple Leafs visit an immigrant family from Ethiopia in Scarborough, Ontario. The Yousuf family is living in a Habitat for Humanity house, one that the Maple Leafs were involved in building.
There are jerseys to give out, cheer to dispense, hearts to win.
"This house here, we had some guys come here when this was just a hole in the ground," Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan says. "We've had some painting, we've had some building, and I think this was their opportunity to give something back, something very real. Not just write a check, but actually be involved, get to know a family. Our players want to have that sort of sweat equity built into this relationship."
It is a moment characteristic of the season, of the holidays, of the Maple Leafs.
Things are less cheery in Michigan, where the Red Wings are coming off a four-game losing streak, trying to find a way to get themselves together. Detroit captain Henrik Zetterberg admonished his charges in a closed-door meeting shown as part of last week's episode.
But there too is tradition and holiday spirit. Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill continues to host area police officers in honor of his father, who was a cop in Detroit for 10 years. His uncles were too. Blashill wanted to show his appreciation and so there they are, in his office at Joe Louis Arena.
"When I got the job, I just wanted to start a program to be able to say thank you to law enforcement," Blashill says. "I just think there's not enough 'thank yous' out there."
There is belief as well when the Red Wings end their losing skid and earn a 6-4 win against the Anaheim Ducks, sending them off on a road trip with a little more cheer, a little more faith.
In Chicago, where the Blackhawks keep rolling, and where defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk gets close enough to home for a special visit during a road trip to play against the New York Islanders and seeing the Sept. 11 memorial for the first time.
In St. Louis, the giving is again personal; Alex Pietrangelo and Robert Bortuzzo spent some time at a children's hospital in the area, one to which Pietrangelo has a connection.
"My niece had cancer three years ago now," Pietrangelo says. "I know this hospital pretty well. This is where she was diagnosed. The first couple of weeks we spent a lot of time here.
"When you come to the hospitals and you meet kids and you understand what the families are going through, then it hits closer to your family. It brings things to a totally different level, and it's kind of given me a different appreciation for what a lot of these families are going through because I've gone through it myself."
He adds, "The least we can do is give back."
And that, in the end, is the idea behind this episode, behind December for many teams in the NHL. They need to believe in themselves, in their potential, in what they can do on the ice, in the fact that they can make it. They also sew that belief in others, bringing hope and trust and certainty to families that needed it, now more than ever.
Seeing all this, the families helped and welcomed and cheered, the belief and faith in team and tradition and the holiday spirit -- and the news that Maple Leafs rookie William Nylander is apparently a heartthrob -- it is difficult not to agree with something said early in this week's episode. As the father of the Yousuf family says, when asked if they are now hockey fans: "Who is not, in Canada?"
And everywhere else.
