I am writing in response to Stephanie Witmer's letter to the editor on Feb. 23. She seemed to think that playing "God Bless America" before the Icer's Feb. 16 game against Niagara (a Canadian team) was disrespectful to the opposing team.

Obviously, she does not know the significance of playing that song before a hockey game, as most diehard hockey fans, at least from Pennsylvania do.

The tradition started back in the 1970s. The Philadelphia Flyers, a National Hockey League team, asked Kate Smith to sing "God Bless America," the song for which she is best known and remembered, before an important playoff game.

The Flyers won. They continued to ask her to sing the song every once in a while, and the Flyers seemed to do much better when she did.

After she died, the Flyers continued the tradition by playing a film of one of her performances before big games, and this tradition continues today.

Someone associated with the Icers probably remembered all of this before the game and thought it would hopefully be a good luck charm, considering that they were about to play the first-place team in the ICHL and the best goaltender in the league, Jim Darling, whom Joe Battista call the most valuable player in the league.

It obviously helped, as the Icers and the Knights skated to a 4-4 tie, the Icers coming back three times from deficits.

I don't really think that the Icers' motive in playing "God Bless America" was to 'intimidate' Niagara. I think that some of the Niagara players, who have likely been involved with hockey for quite some time, might have known what was going on, and if they didn't, they probably didn't think it was disrespectful.

"God Bless America" is a very patriotic song in this country, just as patriotic as "O Canada" is in Niagara's, and I'm sure the Niagara players knew that much.

I hope that the next time that Miss Witmer (or anyone else) hears "God Bless America" before a hockey game, they understand what the home team is really trying to do in that situation.