We’re not bad at math – a recap for Episode 25 is forthcoming.
by Erica, Staff Writer and Fundraising Specialist, All Habs Hockey Magazine
MONTREAL, QC. — This episode of 24CH opened with a segment focusing on P.K. Subban, saying the words every fan wants to hear: “It’s my goal to bring the Stanley Cup to Montreal.”
Good to know, P.K. What else did we learn?
For some fans, the Montreal Canadiens are everything. A young fan named Joey is given the opportunity of a lifetime – to meet the Montreal Canadiens during a pregame skate at the Bell Centre. He’s been affected by illness and a vision disability, so he can’t see that the helmet being put on his head belongs to David Desharnais. (He seems to think it’s pretty cool, though.) He’s a little bashful when P.K. Subban and Max Pacioretty introduce themselves to him, and he looks incredibly happy to be at the Bell Centre, soaking in the atmosphere created by thousands of other fans just as happy to be there as he is.
While the Canadiens are in Winnipeg, 24CH visits a local fan named Gord Dowhan, whose Habs-themed basement would put most Montreal sports bars to shame. Wall to wall, floor to ceiling decorations, memorabilia, and jerseys have all carefully been collected by Gord, a Canadiens fan since the age of five. Even his daughter, a baby girl who shares her December 4th birthday with her dad’s favourite hockey team, is decked out in bleu-blanc-rouge.
Habs fan parents know what they’re doing. This episode focuses on the families of two current Canadiens players: P.K. Subban and Torrey Mitchell. Both players’ parents raised them in households that watched the Canadiens, and in homes with backyard rinks, but the similarities more or less end there. Mitchell’s parents, Steve and Sheila, encouraged their son to play hockey but were overwhelmed by his passion for the game. As a child, Torrey couldn’t get enough of wearing skates, and would cover the blades with socks and walk around the house wearing skates instead of slippers.
Subban’s parents fueled his passion – they got their sons involved in sports because, as children, they had seemingly endless energy. Subban’s father, Karl, encouraged his sons to have fun playing hockey but also wanted P.K. to improve his game – that’s why he took P.K. skating on a daily basis every winter for a few years and encouraged him to do practice drills as soon as he skated onto the backyard rink. Subban’s younger brothers remember knowing how good their brother was, but not knowing for sure whether he or anyone in the family would be drafted to the NHL. The Mitchells and the Subbans were both ecstatic that their sons made it to the NHL, and couldn’t be happier to watch their sons sport the CH.
The end-of-season stretch is important. After scoring the game-winning goal that guaranteed his team a spot in the playoffs, Max Pacioretty says that there’s a lot of work left to do, that a team who does well at the end of the season is more likely to have success in the playoffs. (Knowing now that Pacioretty suffered a yet-to-be-disclosed injury, I just want to pause my television and cry over #67, but that is neither here nor there.) We see that in the team’s practices and games: there is more hustle (coaches prodding and encouraging players at practice), more focus (Devante Smith-Pelly with a little fury in his eyes, watching game action from the bench), more intensity. Not all of that hard work has translated to wins, but the Canadiens will have to keep at it if they want to win the Cup they so desperately want.
