I live near the Madhouse on Madsion aka Chicago’s United Center, home of the Bulls and the Blackhawks and tonight’s site for Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. I’ve been a hockey fan since my college days at the University of Denver mostly because we didn’t have a football team so hockey was the sport du jour on campus (besides skiing).
My Italian antennae got me thinking about the status of ice hockey in Italy. I know there’s a lot of snow and ice in Northern Italy with heavy snowfall and minus Celsius degrees recorded over the last few years and snow reported as far south as Naples. So although playing on ice may not be Italy’s national past time, it is a contender. There is even a Supercoppa italiana (Italian Supercup) competition. Won this year by the Bolzano Foxes.
Ice hockey is, by no means, new to Italy. As a member of the Federazione Italiana Sport Ghiaccio, Italian ice hockey has been making power plays since 1924. The Turin ice area, the site for 2006 Olympic Hockey Games, has sound absorbing seating that would certainly make the Madhouse on Madison less mad as the fan sound decibel levels during playoff games have been recorded up to 122 decibels.










