Hockey, what's hockey?

Growing up in Montreal, I was an avid hockey fan. It wasn’t really a far-fetched idea – my dad had been a hockey fan since he was a kid, and even though he had three girls, he ensured that watching hockey was part of our life.

I have a vivid memory of when I was 8 or 9 years old, asking my dad if I could stay up late after a long day of skiing just so I could watch the game. I don’t know if I actually managed to stay awake for the game, but I remember wanting to watch it.

And of course we were all Habs fans – my dad, my mom, my sisters, and my aunt, uncle and cousins too. There was no other team we’d rather cheer for and it was a big deal, let me tell you, when my youngest cousin suddenly decided that he was a Boston Bruins fan instead.

Then, in the early 1990s, we moved to Ontario, and suddenly, my two sisters became Maple Leaf fans. Our house was turned into a constant hockey battleground – albeit all in good fun – as we argued over which was the better team. But regardless of the team we cheered for, we still liked to watch hockey.

When I met Ryan, he was a Maple Leafs fan – much to my sisters’ joy – and I was, or course, still a Habs fan. For 10 years, it has been a joke between us and our families that we are fans of rival teams.

But the reality is it has become just that – a joke. Neither Ryan, nor I, watch hockey anymore. I don’t know really when that happened, but in the last few years I’ve probably only watched a handful of games. And since the lockout ended, I can probably count the number of games we’ve watched on one hand. I have no idea if the Habs are doing well this year, or if the Leafs are doing poorly this year. (Actually, I think I heard on the sportscast on 680News that both teams suck this year.) The point is I don’t care about hockey anymore. This is kind of sad, because I have such fond memories of watching, and going to, hockey games as a kid and teenager.

Our families still think we’re big hockey fans and Austin even received two pairs of shoes for his birthday this past weekend – one had the Leafs logo on them and the other had the Habs logo on them.

They’re cute, and all the other kids will think he’s cool with his Leafs shoes, but this mom thinks it would’ve been way cooler if he had shoes with the Raptors logo on them.