news During the Men’s Hockey Final, Toronto Held It



Image courtesy of the City of Toronto.



During the climactic men’s hockey game at the end of this winter’s Olympics, Toronto was united by a lot more than enthusiasm for sports. As this graph of the city’s water usage during the game clearly shows, Torontonians were also remarkably synchronized that night in the timing of their trips to the washroom, with massive spikes in water consumption to coincide with each intermission in play and a huge dip in usage following Sidney Crosby’s winning goal. This was almost certainly due to toilets, citywide, flushing, and not flushing, in unison. Bladders were straining together all over Toronto. It brings a tear to the eye.

Similar graphs showing water usage in Edmonton and Winnipeg have already made the news―but this graph, from Toronto Water, our city’s water-supply agency, is the first evidence we’ve seen of game-time washroom synchronicity specifically in Toronto.

We imagine a graph of beer consumption during the game would show pretty much the inverse, if what happened afterward is anything to go by.