A Canadiens-Leafs playoff series would be something to see
A lot has been written about the most storied rivalry in hockey and one of the biggest in sports, period.
It hasn’t been much of a rivalry the past few seasons: the Montreal Canadiens have beaten the Toronto Maple Leafs 13 times in a row, which is not an easy thing to do, no matter how good and how bad the teams have been.
The Knights of Columbus in Pictou have made the Habs/ Leafs rivalry an annual fundraiser (Saturday night, it’s taking place at the Stella Maris church hall), where Toronto and Montreal fans can gather for some old-fashioned camaraderie and most likely, a lot of good-natured trash talk as the teams go at it on the ice.
Curiously, the Canadiens have been struggling of late, and what looked like a team that was a virtual lock to make the playoffs now appears vulnerable.
The Leafs are basically onethird rookies, but they’re hanging around a playoff spot – they could go north or south pretty quick – and unlike Leaf teams in recent years, they are fun to watch (and maddening: like most young squads, they are terrible at defending leads, compelling many fans to take the Lord’s name in vain on more than one occasion).
As the haters know and struggle to admit out loud, the Maple Leafs have a very bright future ahead. And it’s coming fast.
Imagine, if you will, Auston Matthews, William Nylander and Mitch Marner operating on the power play for the next decade and more: oh yeah, Leaf fans are looking forward to it.
All that aside, there’s a different feel when the Canadiens and Leafs hook up on a Saturday night, and it’s been that way for generations of Canadians. It makes you wish they’d play more often, but that would only remove some of the mystique.
Maybe if we can get really lucky, they’ll see each other in the playoffs in a couple of months.
It’d be the first time that has happened since 1979, and wouldn’t it be something to see?
Citing time pressures, the Nova Scotia School Athletic Federation announced this week that no regional or provincial championships will be held for so-called winter sports, among them basketball, hockey and curling.
It came as no big surprise, just a huge disappointment for all the athletes who were affected, especially the Grade 12 students who through no fault of their own were deprived of the opportunity to compete in sports while wearing their school colours in their senior year.
I have no kids in high school so I’ve no dog in the hunt, but this has been bothering me since the whole work-to-rule thing started in December. And it’s bothered a lot of parents, too.
We (not ‘we’, per se, more like the Nova Scotia Teachers’ Union) let the student-athletes down. So the next time some old crank complains about the “kids these days”, just remember: this pile of silliness was on the adults.