Team Canada's goal song this year is an enormous improvement

Like watching Team Canada dismantle a lesser hockey nation on Boxing Day, awaiting the unveiling of the squad’s goal song for the World Juniors has become an bit of an annual holiday tradition for fans north of the border.

Nobody knew which tune the team would go with for the 2019 edition of the tournament. It seemed to be information more classified than the exact location of Santa’s workshop. Heading into their opening clash with Denmark on Wednesday night, the only thing known was that it wouldn’t be the same song as the year before.

With ‘Hey Baby’ by DJ Otzi as the team’s twine-tickling anthem last year, that was some very welcoming news.

Less than five minutes into the first period, Morgan Frost’s beautiful deke opened the game’s scoring and solved the mystery that had so many in a tizzy.

Although the decision had Twitter divided, ‘Don’t Stop the Party’ by Pitbull featuring TJR is what Canada’s going with. And after hearing it played 14 times in Canada’s shutout of the Danes, I’m still excited about the change.

Honestly, what screams “Canada” more than a song from 2012 by an American rapper from Miami with plenty of Spanish lyrics? At the very least, it’s an improvement on a song by an American musician from the early 1960’s covered by an Austrian DJ in 2000.

Having watched last year’s tournament from home and being fortunate enough to be at the Keybank Center when Canada won gold over Sweden, I never understood the hype around ‘Hey Baby’. After the goal horn would go off and people would cheer, it seemed to kind of take the air out of the rink.

Hearing the percussion that connects verses to the chorus of ‘Don’t Stop the Party’ and TJR ask if “y’all having a good time out there?” just clicks. Following the horn, it’s a tune that simply works as it keeps the momentum of the crowd alive.

With this year’s event on home soil, everyone’s having a party in the rink after a Canadian goal. So, as Pitbull so brilliantly points out, don’t stop it.

As long as they continue to score in bunches, there’s no reason to believe that the good times on the West coast will be coming to an end anytime soon.

(But, in all seriousness, can the song be ‘Out for a Rip’ by B. Rich in 2020? That tune freakin’ slaps.)

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