When you're a hockey player, you get to know a lot of Canadians; that's just how it is. A lot of the players are Canadian, a lot of the teams are Canadian, so you're going to spend some time in Canada and you're going to learn a bit about Canadian culture. Before venturing to Canada himself, Alex heard a lot of his Canadian friends and teammates talking about poutine and how good it was. He asked them to tell him what it was and it sounded really good. French fries are delicious. Cheese is delicious. Gravy is delicious. How could poutine be anything other than delicious? So the first time he found himself in Canada he searched Yelp for the place everyone said had the best poutine in town and tried some. To his surprise, it wasn't that good. Fries, it turns out, are best when they're nice and crispy, and when you dump a bunch of cheese and sauce on them they get limp and soggy, and Alex just can't get behind that. One time he went to a Mexican restaurant and they had carne asada fries and it was the same sort of thing. Everyone seemed to love it, but all he tasted was the sadness that comes from eating soggy fries.