Hockey Fever

Hockey is Canada’s sport. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never watched or played a game in your life. We will defend our country’s national pastime. It’s a part of our popular culture. It’s part of our national identity. Even for those of us who aren’t glued to the TV during the NHL season, we all know of “Hockey Night in Canada” – broadcast over our most well known national TV station. Heck, they even made the search for the new theme song part of a reality contest!

There are times that even non-Hockey fans come together to root for the sport. I am of course referring to the Olympics. It’s even more important for us when we face our closest rival, the US. I remember the hockey fervour that struck the nation during the 2002 winter Olympics. I had to work during the game, but we had a TV set up in our lunch room, and we kept asking for (and getting) updates from customers sprinting to and from the store during breaks in the game.

And of course in our most recent Winter Olympics, we Canadians were damned near beyond excited to win the Gold medal against the US again. For weeks after the Olympics we congratulated our team and country on our hockey prowess. Articles flooded into newspapers telling hockey-related stories. (My favourite news article was hearing about how an Air Canada flight was delayed because passengers refused to board the plane until the game ended.)

However, I have recently learned that hockey fever isn’t necessarily relegated only to hard core fans or to people who watch the Olympics. It can grip an entire city. And I have been caught in the excitement surrounding the Habs, Montreal’s team. I have never been so excited to watch a hockey game. I cheer, I curse. When we win, I have a high. When we lose, I am overcome with despair. The rest of the city is pretty much the same. You see Habs jerseys everywhere. Cars proudly hang Habs flags out the windows, etc.

Until recently, the only knowledge I had of hockey was from playing it in middle school. In the past few weeks though, I have been frantically scouring the internet and asking friends for explanations on how the NHL (National Hockey League) works.

The reason I am so excited is because the Habs have been defying the odds to get closer and closer to winning the Stanley Cup (the penultimate hockey trophy in North America). No one expected the team to win. They were at the bottom of the heap when they started. And then surprisingly they managed to beat the number 1 team in the league. And then we just beat the former winners of the Stanley Cup. The Habs have actually made hockey history in that they are the first team to accomplish this kind of feat. It hasn’t come easily though. The team must win 4 games to move on to the next level of the playoffs. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) for the Habs, they keep getting tied, winning 3 games and losing 3 games, and then having to enter into a tie-breaking game.

My life has revolved around their games for the past few weeks. I plan outings to friends’ places so I can watch the game with them. On a night that I wanted to do baking, I dragged my laptop into the kitchen and streamed the game live. I skipped my French language group so that I could see the game.

In the Habs’ final game, again they were tied 3-3. Even though the 7th game was being played in the United States, I and my friends bought tickets to go to the hockey arena just so we could watch the live broadcast of the game on the big screen TV with 21,000 other fans.

The arena was sheer pandemonium! The atmosphere was amazing. Everyone was hyped up with excitement. And there wasn’t even a live game! I can’t fathom what it would be like with both teams playing right in front of us! Every time the Habs got a penalty, the fans booed the referee. If a Pen got a penalty, we cheered. Every time the rivals were close to getting a goal there were gasps of apprehension. And when we got a goal? We went wild. Non-stop cheering 5 minutes. People leapt out of the seats, clapping, yelling, and jumping up and down. I was caught up in the thrill as well. My ears were ringing from the sheer force of sound. My throat was sore from cheering wildly. Even my hands hurt from clapping so hard. And for the final 2 minutes of the game, we stayed on our feet, cheering with all our might, knowing that we had secured victory!

Even after we won, the fans continued to stand and cheer wildly. And even as we left the arena, filing through the hallways and filtering out the multitude of exits, people continued to cheer and sing victory songs at the tops of their lungs.

Luckily Montreal has plenty of experience with hockey fever. At 7 PM the city shut its main shopping street to cars so that the fans could celebrate outside. We flooded on to the street and had a 50,000 person party. People were drinking, having fun. Some malignant fans even burned stuffed penguins in effigy. For the most part people were rowdy but not unmanageable. I found out later that a few hooligans who got out of hand and a small riot occurred.

Overall the whole hockey experience in Montreal has been awesome. No matter where I go afterwards, I will always hold the Habs in my heart!