Only in Canada do 16-year-old boys move from their family homes to play in towns such as Kamloops, Moose Jaw, Owen Sound and Baie-Comeau, most every one with the dream of some day playing in the National Hockey League. Globe and Mail sportswriters across the country report on the phenomenon of major-junior hockey in a five-part series.

Matt Konan of the Medicine Hat Tigers shows some skills during a backyard game with some young local hockey players recently as part of the team's community outreach efforts.

The man didn't give his name because he was too busy complaining to the news director at CHAT TV. The gist of the caller's December rant was: The Medicine Hat Tigers stink but not nearly so much as their head coach, Willie Desjardins.

According to the phone-in expert, Desjardins had less than a clue about what he was doing, needed serious help deciding which goaltender to play and, by the way, "Get your station's sports guy to pass my comments on to the coach."

"I'll just tell him myself," Rhonda Carlson finally said. "He's my husband."

Silence.

"Oh," said the caller. "Merry Christmas."

Click.

Desjardins shakes his head and smirks when he tells the story. Being the general manager and coach of a civic institution, certainly one as embedded as the WHL's Tigers, can have its trying moments — like being stopped on the street and told time after time, "You guys have to shoot more on the power play," a pet peeve among the locals who proudly don the team's orange and black colours and proclaim, "You're in Alberta's Orange County."

But Desjardins insists he wouldn't have it any other way. Here is where the game matters because it has always mattered. For 39 years, the Tigers have been a historical touchstone, operating out of the same city and the same arena while churning out all-stars and NHLers from players to administrators.

Lanny McDonald played here. So did Kelly Hrudey, Trevor Linden, Jay Bouwmeester, to name a few. The Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings front office has deep roots in The Hat. GM Ken Holland was a Tigers' goalie; assistant GM Jim Nill was a captain.

As for on-ice success, the Tigers have won two Memorial Cups and five WHL championships while missing the playoffs just eight times in their existence. The worst stretch came in the late 1990s and early 2000s when the team failed to reach the postseason five years in a row, a downturn that lead to the hiring of Desjardins and a run on tickets that resulted in 128 consecutive sellouts.

The streak, for reasons unknown, ended last March 29 when 218 of the 4,006 tickets went unsold. Since then a new sellout run has begun.

"Tiger fans go to Lethbridge, Swift Current, Moose Jaw and Calgary [a three-hour drive to the west] just to watch the team play because they can't get a ticket here," explained Medicine Hat alderman Jamie White, who often wears a team jersey to council meetings. "You go to any Tigers game on the road and you'll see a lot of orange in the stands."

The Tigers are one of the two guaranteed conversation starters in this working-class burg of 60,000. The first is gas since Medicine Hat boasts one of the world's largest natural gas reserves. Rudyard Kipling once said the place had "all hell for a basement," and if you take a stroll around the downtown core, you'll find Kipling's words dutifully painted on the back of a low-slung building.

Had Kipling stuck around to see a Tigers home game, especially at playoff time, he might have said Medicine Hat hockey fans were equally combustible.

And memorable.

"We used to have this guy who howled at games. Nobody knew who he was," said Travis Tubman, a lifelong Tigers fan. "We also had Sideshow."

Sideshow?

"He was an older guy who dressed up funny. He went to the [2007] Memorial Cup. Sideshow just retired."

Tubman is talking about the Tigers from a table at Rossco's Pub, a favourite watering hole for the hockey crowd that sponsors a chicken mascot nicknamed the Wing King. Together, the Wing King and Rroary, the Tigers' official mascot, help jazz up the crowd at the Medicine Hat Arena, hailed by many as the WHL's toughest building to play in.

"You might see a fight in the stands, but it won't be between us and them," Tubman said of the opposition side's supporters. "It'll be between Tiger fans. We're pretty respectful, but people here really care about their hockey."

People in Prince Albert, Moose Jaw or Swift Current will tell you they have a similar attachment with their team and that's certainly true. But the Tigers are a rarer breed. They have longevity, success and they've been privately owned by the same family pretty much since Day 1.

Brothers Darrell and Brent Maser operate the franchise once owned in part, then outright, by their father George. The Masers made their money in lumber and ranching and are painfully shy when it comes to the media. What they do best, from a hockey standpoint, is hire the right people, then leave them alone to do their job.

"The owners here are committed to winning. They've put in the resources when needed," Desjardins said. "And the fans, if you work hard, they're good. They appreciate hard work and that's fair because that's the one thing you can control."

Jeremy Thompson used to play for the Tigers alongside his brother Rocky, now an assistant coach with the Edmonton Oil Kings. The rambunctious Thompsons were popular performers given their physical brand of play. When Jeremy was traded away from The Hat, he began a hockey odyssey that took him to three other WHL teams, two more in the ECHL, two in the Western Professional Hockey League and one in each the West Coast Hockey League, AHL and United Hockey League.

After his career ended, Thompson found himself drawn back to The Hat, where he works for a communications company, co-coaches his daughter's hockey team and also serves as an alderman. One of the committees he sits on is dealing with the plans to build a multipurpose event centre that would be the Tigers' new home.

To complete the $90-million project, Medicine Hat needs federal and provincial funds. The city wants to secure roughly half of the project's cost before sending in the construction crews. Thompson is hopeful the digging begins this fall. He's confident a new arena makes sense given the city's love affair and business ties with major-junior hockey and the fact 1,500 people are on a list waiting for Tigers season tickets.

"Just about everything and everyone in this city is connected to the hockey team," said Thompson, noting how the woman who billeted him as a player now babysits his children. "It's ingrained in the culture. When I've gone to other places and say where I'm from, people always go, 'Oh, you guys have got the Tigers.' That's important."

"I lived in Calgary and knew nothing about Medicine Hat. Then I moved here [in 1995] and loved it," added Ted Rodych, general manager of Medicine Hat Co-op and a team sponsor for more than a decade. "It's a city with a small-town mentality. We quietly go about our business and produce good hockey teams."

That's the Medicine Hay way — consistent, hard working. While it can be difficult for the Tigers to compete against the larger WHL cities — Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver have more kids who play and are closer to scout — Desjardins has his own advantage. He points to the wall outside the team's dressing room that lists every Tiger record holder, all-star and world junior participant. Desjardins had this section added to show his players they are part of something unique, something that has been here long before they were born and will continue to endure after they've left.

"I'm a big believer in history," Desjardins said.

How about shooting more on the power play?

"It's just a feeling, but I think [Medicine Hat fans] would like to see us do that."