by Lyse, AllHabs.net
Québec City, QC. — I love rivalries. Like in true hockey rivalries where fan bases of opposing teams get at it, usually in a more or less civilized manner.
For many in Québec, the sole mention of Alain Côté’s (non) goal still stirs up emotions among both Nordiques and Habs fans and has become more that a simple historical footnote but the subject of banter, heated debates, etc. Mostly, all in good fun.
While many efforts have been made – hey, they even went as far as to produce two seasons of a reality tv show about a two-team beer league – to revive this « classic » rivalry between Montreal and Québec City, in my mind there is only one true historical rivalry : the one opposing the Habs to the Bruins.
Rivalry, complete with fans from both camps taunting each other, trash talking between players of the two teams and yes, the occasional fight or brawl on ice. It seems, however, that the good old days are far behind.
Don’t get me wrong, I like the physical aspect of the game, but the goonery… that is where I draw the line. And crude, rude personal attacks have replaced the « normal » banter. The ugly aura of violence rears its ugly head everywhere, on the ice as well as off. We see it printed on t-shirts and Photoshopped images. We hear it in TV and radio interviews and commentaries. We read it in print or web sites.
Media hype is a vector for this new breed of hockey rivalry, with the call-in shows fuelling the masses. While we’ve been used to see homer play-by-play guys and expert analysts, the whole thing has taken new proportions. For the love of ratings, the most outrageous stuff goes on air, and people avidly feeds from it.
On one hand it would be easy to point at those Felger and Masseratti whose grand knowledge about our culture (and medical notions too) leads their audience into false beliefs that only fuel the Bruins fan base against the Habs’. But we also have our own local hero to be « proud » of JC Lajoie, who mobilized his loyal congregation – one of his on-air personas is a member of the cult, L’Abbé, who leads his flock at the St. Joseph Oratory to pray for la Flanelle-cette-Sainte during playoffs – to call the police. Not only once after the hit on Pacioretty, but a second time after hearing of the no supplemental discipline call from Mike Murphy on Chara the day after.
As one wise columnist from Montreal tweeted the other night: “Balance, common sense and logic minus the verbal rage don’t make for high ratings”. It’s up to all of us to recognize the grand scheme of things and keep it classy.
Meanwhile, nothing keeps us from laughing about it all.
After chatting with my friend Lissa last night, she came up with this.
But even as one with true #HabsBlood running in my veins and high dislike of all things Bruins, I could not help but appreciate this one and chuckle a bit, by Bruins blogger Justin of Days of Y’Orr.
At 7 pm tonight, let the true rivalry begin: Let’s play hockey!
When we think back to the great rivalry from the 80’s (which is where my memories begin) and earlier, the thing that didn’t exist then that does now is social media (and the blogosphere) as well as 24-7 sports talk radio.
You correctly allude to it – rational, fun banter doesn’t make for good ratings when you have so many hours to fill.
Hence, we get the cesspool that this rivalry has become. The play on the ice seems to have followed suit as the Bruins have tried time and time again to quench their thirst for blood.
What this rivalry needs is for both teams to fade to obscurity for a long time. Or, at least one of them. CBC and TSN tries to pump the tires of the Habs/Leafs rivalry, but one team has been irrelevant for each of the 15 years that the Leafs have been back in the eastern conference.
It gets much more heated when two teams are chasing the same goal.
Another great post, Lyse!
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