And my point is that most Americans know of hockey just like most Canadians do

Unfortunately for you, two groups of people having knowledge about the same thing does not mean that they use the same words to refer to that knowledge (see “aluminum” vs. “aluminium”, or maybe more appropriately, “soccer” vs. “football”). Americans and Canadians both knowing about ice hockey does not mean that they use the same words to refer to the sport, and to assume otherwise is uninformed and wrong. Like, this is Ling 101 levels of basic.

I expect most Americans also refer to ice hockey as hockey, and field hockey as field hockey.

Ah the hubris that comes with unquestioned assumptions based on your own dialect.

My wife cracked up the first time I asked her if she wanted me to “carry her to the store” (meaning “drive her”), which genuinely shocked me, because I had had zero reason up until that moment to think that idiom was unique to my own dialect area, especially when we’re from roughly the same region.

The point is, you’re very clearly, demonstrably wrong about this. Based on a poll of just the four people in my household, three of them would say “ice hockey” while the other says that they would probably just say “hockey”.

One can also reference how the promoters of the leagues refer to themselves.

One can also realize that not everyone speaks like people paid to have a career in a specific sport. Maybe asking people with literally the most possible bias for one over the other isn’t the best way to go about capturing linguistic diversity.

that likely doesn’t apply to someone who grew up in New York City

Based on what? Your ass? Because New Yorkers famously sound just like Canadians and don’t at all have a very famous, particular way of talking…

We already have an excellent data point that this may not in fact be true. That data point? The fact that Trump, who is a New Yorker, educated in New York, as you pointed out, said “ice hockey” in fluent speech instead of saying “hockey”.

So how they refer to hockey in some region of America that hasn’t touched ice that wasn’t floating in a drink isn’t really relevant to this discussion.

Demonstrating that there clearly exist Americans who say “ice hockey” instead of “hockey” is an excellent data point when discussing whether this is a dialect difference between some American and Canadian speakers.

All of your assertions come, like I said, straight from your ass, and are therefore much less relevant to the discussion.

And, of course, the main point, once again, because I think it’s important:

WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU CRITICIZING TRUMP FOR SAYING “ICE HOCKEY” INSTEAD OF, Y’KNOW, CRITICIZING HIM FOR THE HORRIBLE SHIT HE’S DOING TO CANADA??