It’s been a busy ten days. Last week I got to go to the Leafs home opener against the Canadiens. It was my first sporting event in a crowd since…I have no idea when. The Canadiens lost — they’ve only lost so far this season — and after the game I saw a drunk Leafs fan get hit by a car. So there was that.
Earlier this week Lindsay’s mom was in town. On Tuesday we had a tremendous birthday dinner at Ascari Enoteca:
cocktails
bread
olive oil poached tuna w/ apple, fennel, cashew, and chili emulsion
Wisconsin burrata w/ heirloom tomatoes, romesco, pine nuts, and focaccia crisps
arancini w/ nduja sugo, basil, and grana padano
glasses of La Rondinina Lambrusco
linguine w/ octopus, nduja, tomatoes, red pepper, and caper bread crumbs
spaghetti alla carbonara w/ house made guanciale, grana padano, pecorino, egg yolk, and black pepper
ricotta gnocchi w/ hen of the woods mushrooms, sunchoke, chives
bottle of 2017 Palmento Costanzo ‘Mofete’
On Wednesday we went to see Blindness, my first play, or something resembling it, since…I really have no idea when. It was a very intense sound & light experience, to the point where I was worried I might pass out or be sick. But still really interesting and good.
I know I’m a few days late on this, but…the Canadiens’ Cinderellarun ended Wednesday. They defeated three teams against whom they were thought to have no chance, but then ran into the defending champion Tampa Bay. The Lightning were seemingly better in all aspects than the Canadiens (not to mention $18 million better than the salary cap) and took the series in five games. What a run though.
Two weeks ago I wrote about how the Montreal Canadiens’ Stanley Cup playoff run through two rounds was feeling a lot like 1993, their last cup win. But heading into the third round, their chances didn’t look great.
In the next round they’ll face Las Vegas, a team which doesn’t bear much resemblance to their 1993 opponent — a New York Islanders team fresh off a shocking upset of the defending two-time Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins. But what is familiar is that no one gives Montreal a chance of winning this series. Just like they had no chance against Toronto, and not much of one against Winnipeg.
But then, on Thursday night, the Habs scored in overtime of game six to punch their ticket to the finals. They’ll face the Tampa Bay Lightning, a team who only joined in the league in the 1992-93 season, but which has won twice since then — including last year. The Lightning are loaded with superstars, and heavily favoured.
I’ve always been a hockey fan, and specifically a Montreal Canadiens fan, but I was never quite so obsessed as in the early 90s. In 1993 Montreal won the Stanley Cup, their last, and the last for any Canadian team. I remember every game. I could name the entire lineup, forward lines and D pairings included. And while they’ve only won two rounds, the Canadiens’ run in this year’s playoffs is starting to show some parallels.
In round 1 they were underdogs against a top-flight team, Toronto. In 1993, that team was Quebec. Quebec was up two games in the series before Montreal won 4 straight to move on.
Last week, in the second round, they swept Winnipeg, a bit of a surprise opponent after shocking the favoured Oilers. In 1993 they swept Buffalo in the second round, the Sabres having shocked the mighty Bruins in the opening series.
Montreal is riding a hot, seemingly unflappable goalie in Carey Price, much as Patrick Roy was after shaky games in the first series. Philip Danault is doing his best Guy Carbonneau impression, all but dismantling the other team’s top lines. The current team lacks offensive stars the likes of Muller, Damphousse, Bellows, and LeClair, but is rolling four lines.
The similarities get fuzzy now though. In the next round they’ll face Las Vegas, a team which doesn’t bear much resemblance to their 1993 opponent — a New York Islanders team fresh off a shocking upset of the defending two-time Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins. But what is familiar is that no one gives Montreal a chance of winning this series. Just like they had no chance against Toronto, and not much of one against Winnipeg.
Frankly, this is all gravy for me. I never expected them to make it out of the first round. Beating Toronto in their first series since 1979, coming back from 3-1 down and sending Leafs fans ever deeper than usual into their annual pit of despair…that’s all I needed.
The Canadiens won in overtime again tonight, sending their playoff series with the Leafs to a game 7. I’m not sure my heart can take it.
Apart from the OT goal, maybe the best thing about the game was that there were real live fans in the stands, for the first time since March of last year. Not just in Montreal, but in any Canadian city.
Sure, only 1/8 of the seats were full, but still…it was such a treat to see. It almost makes me remember the before times.
After a brutal 7-game series against Boston (who kind of had the Raps’ number all season, including in the bubble) the Raptors are out of the playoffs in the second round. They could have — should have, maybe, with 18 turnovers — won game 7, but overall the team vastly outperformed in a season where everyone wrote them off. They weren’t supposed to be this good without Kawhi Leonard. They played themselves into a 2-seed and looked poised to run deep. Despite being blown out in a couple of games the Raps had some magical moments in the series, like OG’s buzzer beating 3, and Kyle’s turnaround jumper to seal game six, so it felt like there was some still some magic. But game seven was a disaster.
Had even three of the five starters played well last night they would have gone on to play Miami in the next round. Despite Miami’s dispatch of Milwaukee, I would have like Toronto’s chances to reach the finals…and then who knows?
Anyway, it was a longer and more enjoyable season than most, including myself, would have guessed. And the fact that we had basketball at all was a gift. Thanks fellas. Can’t wait for next season.
The way the NHL season was going in February I’d pretty much given up any hope of seeing my Montreal Canadiens in the playoffs. They were well out of a playoff spot.
Then, when the season was put on hold in March, I didn’t think it would come back this year. But they, along with the NBA, had a plan to resume…and said plan featured a play-in round for the 5th through 12th seeds in each Conference. That meant Montreal had a chance. A weak, outside chance given they were the 12th seed and would play the 5th-ranked Pittsburgh Penguins to get in, but…a chance.
Turns out they won the series, 3 games to 1. Maybe they shouldn’t have, since it ruins their chance to win the #1 draft pick, and now they’re up against the even stronger Philadelphia Flyers. But still…when you have Carey Price and a bit of luck, you can do some damage.
Between unexpected hockey and a (hopefully deep) Raptors run, there’s more sports on TV this summer than either Lindsay or I expected. I’ll let you guess who’s happier about that.
In other news, I had a second excursion for dinner this week, this time at Gare de L’Est for dinner with my boss, just to get caught up in person.
Last night I was lucky enough to be a witness to the greatest moment in Toronto Raptors history. I’d lucked into some tickets — good ones, too, just six rows up from the floor, and within handshake distance of Pinball Clemons, Aaron Sanchez, Dallas Green, Gerry Dee, and others — to game six of the Eastern Conference finals.
For the second game in a row, the Raps — underdogs in the series, given the Milwaukee Bucks had been the best team in the NBA this season — overcame a huge deficit. The bench was great. Kawhi was a beast. The crowd was deafening. And the Raptors won, advancing to the finals in six.
While this is the highest peak the Raptors have ever reached, everyone’s now wondering whether they can scale the next one. It won’t be easy. They’ll play Golden State in the finals, and the Warriors have been a dynasty in recent years. They’re well-rested too, having swept Portland in the Western Conference finals. But Five Thirty-Eight has the Raps as slight favourites (as of today anyway) and Chuck likes them, so…who knows? For now I’m taking a deep breath to revel in the feeling, then getting myself psyched up for game one on Thursday.
Oh, and just before the game we had dinner at the now-revamped Carisma. Gone are the cave-like feel and TV-based fireplace of the old space; it’s now bright whites and soft blues and a buzzier open space, but the food is still stellar, and my wine guy remembered me, so it was a pretty great meal. We had the burratina & sparkling wine, then agnolotti & steak, and a delicious bottle of Morellino.
Something monumental has happened. A seismic shift in my thinking. In my very being. Something I never thought would happen. But it has.
I’m rooting for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
While I’ve lived in Toronto more than half my life, the Leafs have always been my sworn enemy. I’m a Montreal fan, remember, so for me no team is as despised as the Leafs and Bruins, and my annoyance at the deluded nature of Leafs fans these past two decades has — if anything — made the Leafs and Bruins 1 and 1a respectively. Not to mention my dread at how insufferable this city becomes if they win so much as a playoff series. So the Leafs may be the only team I have actively cheered against for most of my life.
But things have changed. At least for this year.
First of all, despite collecting 96 points during the regular season (which would have comfortably earned a playoff spot in the Western conference) the Canadiens missed the playoffs. That Columbus, the team who barely squeaked into the #8 playoff spot, swept the #1-ranked Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round makes it particularly disappointing. Anyway, all today: I don’t really have a dog in this playoff fight.
Second: I would very much like to see a Canadian team win the cup again. It hasn’t happened since Montreal (yay!) won it all in 1993, and of the three Canadian teams who did qualify Toronto seems to have the best chance. Calgary, the #1 seed in the west, has already been knocked out. Winnipeg, certainly the team I’d have loved to see win it all, went into the playoffs cold and got knocked out in six games. Toronto, on the other hand, is leading in their series and — given the sweep of Tampa and the Pittsburgh Penguins — has a real chance to come out of the east.
Third, the Leafs are playing the Bruins in the first round, and the enemy of my enemy is my friend, even if in this case I’m being selective about it.
Fourth, and this is how I can justify the hypocrisy of the previous point: I actually like some of the players on the Leafs. That has not happened in the past — in addition to disliking the team, I disliked many of the players as well. But I like Auston Matthews. I like Patrick Marleau. I like John Tavares. I really like Mitch Marner. And I wouldn’t hate to see them hoist a cup.
So while I don’t like the idea of disrupting the natural order of things — which is that the Leafs should stumble and miss the playoffs and always have the longest Stanley Cup drought forever and ever — the idea of some nice players beating the Bruins and maybe bringing the cup back to Canada makes it at least palatable.
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 