Earlier this week the Montreal Canadiens were knocked out of their first round playoff series by Washington, in five games. Years ago this would have felt like a dismal failure. This year, it felt like progress.

Since a disastrous season following their Cinderella run to the cup final in 2021, the Habs have been in a rebuild. Their objective to start the year was to be playing competitive games in March and April. Before the season began The Athletic gave them a 4% chance of making the playoffs; that prediction fell to 1% as late as Feb 10th. After the break, though, Montreal stormed back up the rankings, clinching the last playoff spot in the East in their final game of the season.

Gone are the days where any team can contend year in and year out — this is the new reality. You take some bad years, build through the draft and smart trades, and hope to get to a contention window for a few years. Now, a few years in, there’s a solid core in place (Lane Hutson is likely to win the Calder trophy; if he does, he’ll be the first Habs rookie to do it since Ken Dryden in 1972), with lots of upside still left to be realized. A playoff series like this against one of the best teams in the league is invaluable experience. They’ll be an exciting team to watch for a while, assuming they can avoid a Buffalo/Detroit-style backslide.

Can’t wait for September.

OK, it’s been a week, so I can talk about it.

The Jays crashed out of the playoffs after an epic collapse in game 2 of their wildcard series. I had such high hopes…but ’tweren’t to be.

There’s still an excellent core of players, so maybe this is just the bitter playoff experience they need to build on next year. Fingers crossed.

At least hockey has started, so I get the watch the Canadiens…uh…oh. Oh boy.

This past Wednesday I attended my first Blue Jays game of the season. I’ve been following them closely all summer, watching as many games as I could (even if it’s during weekend work) and hoping they’d make the playoffs. They’ve since clinched a wildcard spot, but on Wednesday they lost to the Yankees.

That game was memorable because Aaron Judge hit his 61st home run, tying both the Yankees’ club record and the American League record — and, in many fans’ mind, the true HR record given the spectre of PEDs over Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds’ NL records — held by Roger Maris. Maris’ son was in attendance to see it happen, just like he was for McGwire hitting #62. I remembered that because I watched 61* (imdb | rotten tomatoes) again recently — very underrated movie, by the way.

One other note: the Rogers Centre Skydome’s drink selection is abysmal. At least where I was — in one of the corporate suites — they had no wine, a single cider, and five generic beers, the “best” of which was Mill Street Organic. Maybe it’s better elsewhere around the park, but I doubt it. Even this ranking — taken last year when the Jays were still playing in Buffalo — ranks them 28th out of 30 in terms of beer selection, and that was influenced by being able to get a $5 beer in Sahlen Field. No such luck in Toronto, I reckon.

The Raptors won yesterday against the 76ers, staving off the sweep. (Sorry, Shaq.) Despite no team ever coming back from 3-0 down, I’ll keep the faith until the end. This team has earned it.

Meanwhile, my only excitement surrounding the Canadiens has been hoping they finish dead last so they have the best shot at the #1 draft pick.

Apart from the Raps overachievement, most of my excitement lately has been for the start of the Blue Jays season. They look awfully good this year, and they’ve been fun to watch.

And so it goes. One team playing well (and favoured to win it all); one occupying the middle, and one in dead last. Logically, it’s so rare that all your teams would be at the top at the same time. I guess the closest I ever got was 1993:

• the Canadiens won the Stanley Cup
• the Blue Jays won their second world series in a row
• The Edmonton Eskimos (I used to watch way more CFL) won the Grey Cup
• The New York Knicks (the team I considered my favourite, until the Raptors were created) lost in the Eastern Conference finals to the Bulls

At the time I probably didn’t appreciate how rare all that combined success was.

So, go Jays. And c’mon, Shane Wright.