GEORGE WOKE UP THE WAY he so often did: with a rabid hangover, his hands bloodied, his knuckles bruised, and his helmet askew. He had a fair amount of vomit on his jersey, which made him all the more thankful that the jersey was a vomit repelling polyester blend. His mouth was crusted in...
Read more →
Fandom in the face of bounties, illusions and lies THE NEW ORLEANS SAINTS are trying to break my heart. This is not new, of course; they’ve found a lot of pretty good ways to do it since I jumped on the bandwagon in 1987. In ‘87 the Saints won their last nine games to earn...
Read more →
IN THE 1993 STANLEY CUP SEMI-FINALS, when referee Kerry Fraser botched a call against Wayne Gretzky that cost Toronto a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals, fans in Toronto called it a league conspiracy to sell hockey to the south. They were only half right. It was indeed a conspiracy, but it was never...
Read more →
WHEN WE SITUATE THE OLIVE AGAIN, it is in the birthplace of the world’s greatest sport. It is winter and he is standing alone in a makeshift crease carved out by the blade of his goalie stick as he stands between the pipes of a hockey net in the school yard on a Sunday afternoon. He is wearing...
Read more →
I’M OF A GENERATION that grew up without religion, so I was a late convert to the Church of the Montreal Canadiens. I grew up a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, so I knew disappointment at a young age. Following years of Leafs failure, my hometown Ottawa got an NHL team, and naturally I became a...
Read more →
A FEW SATURDAYS ago I was at the Air Canada Centre to see the Leafs play the Canadiens. It was my first time to the ACC for hockey game, my only other visit coming in 2001 to see Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young, a memorable show and the only time in the seven I’ve...
Read more →