Dec. 29: The Montreal Canadiens

The best Canadian short story of all time is Roch Carriere's 1979 offering, The Hockey Sweater, which, on the surface, is about a young hockey fan who orders a new Montreal Canadiens jersey and is sent a Toronto Maple Leafs sweater by mistake.

The boy lives in Quebec and all of his friends are fans of the Montreal Canadiens. When he shows up one day wearing a Buds sweater, his is ostracized. Call it CanCon if you want, but The Hockey Sweater succeeds as much more than just a piece of Canadiana. Its larger theme is that human beings are tribal by nature and that you can be kicked out of any group for the most picayune reasons.

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As of this writing, the Montreal Canadiens are the last Canadian team to win the Stanley Cup; they won it in 1993 against the Los Angeles Kings. Since then, a number of Canadian teams have made it to the finals - the Ottawa Senators, the Vancouver Canucks, the Edmonton Oilers, the Calgary Flames - but weren't able to get over that final hump.

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I have seen the Montreal Canadiens play a number of times - mostly against my favourite team, the Calgary Flames. I am always treated well by Canadiens fan when I go see the game in Montreal. No matter who wins, nearby Habs fans will always shake my hand and say "good game." The same was not true in Boston or New York, where opposing fans threatened to beat me up or even kill me whenever I celebrated my team's goals.


 

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I have several friends who are fans of the Montreal Canadiens. Because I am in a good mood, here is the starting lineup for tomorrow's game against the Vancouver Canucks. All players are friends of mine who are Habs fans.

Goaltender: Chris B

Defense: Christina L G, Valerie J

Left wing: Taralynn S-S

Right wing: Tiffany L

Centre: Grant L

Word has it that they beat the Canucks. This should be a surprise to no one at all.

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The Montreal Canadiens have won 24 Stanley Cups, more than any other team in NHL history. Eight of those victories came while former Canadiens player, Toe Blake, was coaching the team. What I like best about Toe - besides the fact that he has a body part for a first name - is that he was instrumental in allowing goaltenders to wear hockey masks.

What happened was that goalie Jacques Plante had been campaigning to wear a mask but Toe, who feared that such a mask would impair his goalie's vision, said no. Then Jacques Plante took a slapshot in the face during a game against the New York Rangers. Jacques suffered a broken nose and then Toe said he could start wearing mask. I bet Toe felt like crap too.

Today, goalies are allowed to wear masks and it's all because of the Montreal Canadiens. Dudes who want to be models can now be goalies and they don't have to worry about messing up their faces.

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