The more you learn about Canadians, the more you want to pick them up, spin them around and blow raspberry’s on their bellies. Canucks rank right next to four-day-old puppies on the cuteness scale.

They are even cuter now, as the Stanley Cup Finals are coming to a close. Cute, and completely shut off from the rest of the world, where events like the World Cup are going on, while the U.S. Open prepares for lift off.

But it’s the Stanley Cup Finals, so the Canadians are almost completely out of the loop.

“It’s amazing what you don’t hear. I was watching TV and saw that Tiger Woods is going back to play golf,” Carolina Hurricanes coach Peter Laviolette told Canada’s National Post. “I didn’t know his father died. Is that correct?”

Still, one can forgive Laviolette for missing that piece of information even while the rest of us were faced with it on a daily basis. And sure, if you want to get hung up on facts, Laviolette is actually from Massachusetts, but seriously people, they’re Canadian in everything but name up there.

Canadians who know golf are even more charming. Take Brad Fritsch, the Canadian Tour player who earned a berth at the U.S. Open, and is writing a blog about it for ScoreGolf.com. It is a blog that captivates the imagination in ways only real Canadians can understand.

“It’s 9 p.m. on Monday night, and I’m glad there’s two more days until the U.S. Open gets underway. Frankly, I wore myself out today and I learned a valuable lesson that will stay with me all week. I’ll explain. For any other event that I play, usually on the Canadian Tour, I warm up a little before the practice round, play 18 holes and then leave. Today, I spent about two hours on the range in the morning hitting a lot of balls and talking to some of the Titleist guys who hooked me up with some new stuff (don’t worry, it won’t go in the bag until at least next week - gotta go with what got you there). I ate lunch in the player hospitality tent and watched some World Cup soccer on one of the 10 screens, and then went to the first tee for my 2 p.m. tee time. I played the front nine with a good friend of mine, Steve Gangluff, who currently sits second on the Canadian Tour money list.”

–Brad Fritsch

Powerful stuff, eh? Fritsch has other great stuff, including how he chickened out of playing with Tiger and how he’s freaking out that Peter Jacobsen knows who he is.

So here’s to you, Canada. We know you’re hurting, about to see Carolina take possession of the Stanley Cup. We know it must sting to lose to a team whose fans would much rather watch the Duke basketball team practice, which is why we honor you now.

Let the proud Americans in Raleigh drink from the Stanley Cup Trophy in honor of Canadians everywhere. We salute you Canada. You are one freakin’ adorable little nation.

–WKW