Alex DeBrincat is an American hockey player. The Ottawa Senators had a chance to get DeBrincat from Chicago for 3 significant draft picks. Unfortunately, after a year in Ottawa, DeBrincat had to be traded to try and get some value instead of nothing if he left for free agency. The Senators traded DeBrincat to Detroit (he's from Michigan) for far less than they spent to get him. The Red Wings signed DeBrincat quickly to a 4-year extension.
This is sadly a struggle for Canadian NHL teams to lure talent north of the border. We've heard stories about taxes, difficulties in reuniting families, different school systems, the French language in Ottawa and Montréal. The Alex DeBrincat story includes an odd twist we hadn't anticipated.
The Senators play in Kanata, a suburb well west of downtown. The team would love to build a new arena in LeBreton Flats in the downtown core.
Turns out one of the issues DeBrincat had in playing in Ottawa was the lack of a Chipotle in the west end of Ottawa. There is a Chipotle in downtown Ottawa in the CF Rideau Centre on the map above at 50 Rideau Street. That would be decently close to the new potential arena in LeBreton Flats.
Ottawa GM Pierre Dorion joked about getting another Chipotle location when DeBrincat was not happy knowing there were no nearby locations where the team played and practiced.
DeBrincat, 24 and 25 in all of this saga, might have wondered about this strange land, meaning Canada, where one could not easily score Chipotle food.
DeBrincat will be in the Detroit area, which has a few randomly scattered Chipotle locations. There are no locations within a close range of Little Caesars Arena, where the Red Wings play. Perhaps DeBrincat will live in a Detroit suburb near a Chipotle. Maybe Detroit management will convince Chipotle to have a location near the downtown Detroit arena.
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We are poking a bit of fun at DeBrincat but Canada is a different country than the United States. There are a few Whole Foods and no Trader Joe's. Toronto and Vancouver can offer more "American" options than Winnipeg or Edmonton. You could find more interesting Mexican food in Ottawa than a Chipotle but that would seem foreign in a lot of ways to a young American hockey player.
Your humble narrator lives a mile from a Chipotle. Don't give that too much thought since I mostly cook at home. If I lived in Canada, I would find new places to enjoy certain foods if I were trying to make a new place feel like home. Then again, I am not an American hockey player searching for well-known Mexican food.
Friends of mine have a son who just played American football in southern France. He did very well on the gridiron. There must have been a cultural shock to being in a different country. Maybe he was hungry for Chipotle or some other American food. He was there to get a chance to play the game he loves and have a new cultural experience. Playing football in southern France; Playing in the NHL in Ottawa. Not the same but a new experience for those who can appreciate something different.
photo credit: Google maps
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