NFL
By: Greg Rector
Yankees vs Red Sox, Cubs vs Cardinals, Lakers vs Celtics, Duke vs UNC, just some of the famous rivalries in sports in the United States. Well, y’all have nothing on what was witnessed in the first round of this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs here in Canada. Thanks to the pandemic the seven Canadian teams had to play in their own division. What this created was for the first time in 42 years, the Toronto Maple Leafs from Canada’s largest city met the Montreal Canadiens, the second-largest city, in the Stanley Cup playoffs. This series went the distance and the happiest people of all were Rogers Cable and their sports network known as Sportsnet.
Officially lacrosse is the national sport of Canada, while hockey is the national pastime. Try telling that to red-blooded Canadians be they born and raised here or have emigrated to the country. Evidence for that was in March when Sportsnet had a night of games broadcast in SEVEN, yes I said SEVEN languages. Two years ago when the Raptors championship run saw 7.7 million households tuned in (that’s how things are now measured thanks to streaming)that was a huge number. However, it was still a million short of the record 8.7 million from 2011 the last time a Canadian franchise played in a Stanley Cup final when the Vancouver Canucks lost in seven games to the Boston Bruins. Unfortunately, there was an ugly riot in Vancouver after Boston won the last game 4-0. From one coast to the other Canadians now might cheer for Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, and Winnipeg, but this is the ORIGINAL rivalry. Grandfathers, great uncles etc… who remember the “good old days,” have been retelling stories of past glories for both teams. Montreal’s hockey franchise is as mythic as the New York Yankees are to baseball. Babe Ruth? Montreal has Maurice Richard (First to score 500 goals) Lou Gehrig? Try Jean Beliveau 10 time Stanley Cup winner, Mickey Mantle? Try Guy Lafleur who before helmets were mandatory would fly down the wing with his blond hair flowing. Toronto has always been second fiddle, much to their chagrin.
This playoff series though is today as it has been for 90 years is far and above the one Canadian hockey fans relish the most. You have English Canada’s biggest city against the predominately French-speaking city of Montreal. You have the sports media-based mostly in Toronto that treat everything the Maple Leafs do as it was Breaking News. Then you have the city of Montreal, the province of Quebec, and the home to a predominately French-speaking population, where hockey is more than a game, it is a religion. Toronto has 13 Stanley Cup titles, Montreal of course has 24, As I am half-French my blood boils when anyone proclaims Toronto as the “Mecca” of hockey. For decades Saturday nights were Hockey Night in Canada, and in Quebec “La Soiree du Hockey.” Since the Quebec Nordiques moved to Colorado in 1995 there hasn’t been a playoff series to get the fans of Les Habitants fired up as this series has.
This 16th Stanley Cup playoff series between the two teams just ended and the Montreal Canadiens are 9-7 ahead of the Maple Leafs all-time now, thanks to a 3-1 victory. The last time Toronto won the Stanley Cup was the 1966-67 season the last year of the “Original Six,” against Montreal in the final, so it’s now the 54th year without a Stanley Cup, something New York Rangers fans know a bit about 1940- 1994. Seven games in twelve nights and it was intense.
Yes in this day and age of so many viewing options, online streaming etc… when the numbers are released for this series, you can bet that more than half of Canada watched some or all of this game tonight, never mind the other six games. Remember those rivalries I started out with? Face it folks they are mostly a regional rivalry, even the Lakers vs Celtics NBA rivalry still doesn’t pull in the rest of the country the way Toronto vs Montreal in a playoff series does up here. Sportsnet numbers will absolutely crush the numbers for TSN the other sports network that is showing the NBA playoffs. Even if the Raptors were playing, that would have been the case. This nation is hockey-crazed, and after a 42-year wait to see it happen, two new generations plus us old guys finally got to see them go at it again. the Maple Leafs were heavy favorites as they finished 18 points clear of Montreal in the regular season. They even held a 3-1 series lead but once Carey Price and the Canadiens backs were against the wall they roared back to win. Since 2014 that’s 8 straight losses for the Maple Leafs when they’ve had the chance to clinch a playoff series. Doc Rivers anyone…lol For those of us who grew up watching the Bleu, Blanc, et Rouge (Blue, White, and Red) tonight is sheer bliss. The Maple Leafs have been vanquished and can yet again be called the Toronto Make Believes.
As always you can find me on Twitter @GregCowboys
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