The rivalry of which I speak is the one between the Montreal Canadiens and the Ottawa Senators.
Ottawa has only been back in the NHL for 14 years, and yes, for a rivalry to be really intense, a certain familiarity between the teams - through the frequency of playing against each other - is required to build up the kind of animosity that makes each game between the two teams a joy to witness.
But, from a fan perspective, particularly those who live in either Montreal or Ottawa, I would expect the intensity would already be there. The cities, two of the most interesting in the country for their own distinct reasons, lie only about an hour and a half apart.
Ottawa, Ontario - Canada's capital city - borders the province of Quebec, and has the highest incidence of bilingualism than any other Canadian city outside Quebec, due to its more firmly entrenched politically correct stance toward bilingualism, and the large number of federal government employees. It is also a very beautiful city.
Montreal, the jewel of the province of Quebec, is one of the few places in the province where you can get by being an English uniligual - although, through osmosis, many who start out as uniligual English learn the French necessary to get by, and to 'blend in', and many become as bilingual as anyone, once they see how easy it can be. It is the only city in the country with a different - some call it 'cosmopolitan' - I think it's European - feel.
Montreal's hockey team leads all in Stanley Cup championships, and has arguably produced many of the greatest teams to ever play the game, but has struggled since the early 1990's (some would say even earlier than that, with some bad management moves which really hurt the team), while Ottawa, a franchise which existed only on paper and in history from the early 20th century, returned to the NHL as an expansion franchise, somewhat laughable at first, but then quickly built a team which has been consistently among the best in the regular season, only to be just as consitent in faltering early in the playoffs.
Toronto has a little less in common with either city. It is neither a government city, nor a bilingual city (if anything, a little too hostile toward the French of this country), and has riches well beyond the grasp of either Ottawa or Montreal.
Ironic, because it seems to do its best to grasp and appreciate every other culture, religion and language which has emigrated to within its boundaries, except for that which centres around our other official language. People go out of their way to let the Jamaicans be Jamaican, the Spanish be Spanish, the Italians be Italian, etc., but God forbid half of this country's founding fathers, the French, dare speak a word of it without offering an immediate translation.
Toronto would also seem too busy aggressively pursuing the title of 'centre of the universe' to have much interest in anything else. Their hockey team has been in business for about the same amount of time - and over the same period of time - as the Montreal Canadiens has, but have met with much less success, and no championships since the 1960's. Their last was in 1967, and they have only 11 Stanley Cups in total over their 80 years in the same league.
Yet, their team continues to make money due to corporate ticket sales and aggressive marketing, and regardless of their season's end result, they are almost guaranteed to have a packed house at every home game the following year.
Ten of Montreal's 24 championships have come since Toronto's last Stanley Cup win, yet since they started to slide toward mediocrity in the late '80's and early 90's, their fans only show up when the team is doing well, and will let the team know when they are unimpressed with its performance. Not a corporate culture, but a true fan's culture, and almost a religion, encircles the players who skate for the bleu, blanc et rouge.
Ottawa has their name on the Cup only once, from their first time around in the League (1917-1934), in 1927, but they have only played in the NHL a total of 25 seasons (returned to the League in 1992).
However, most - except for the very ardent Leaf and Canadien fans - would agree that Ottawa's franchise is closer to winning the next Stanley Cup than either Toronto or Montreal.
Although there is a heated rivalry between Toronto and Ottawa due to both teams being based in Ontario, and the Montreal/Toronto rivalry has been around since about 1919 (when Toronto's team was known as the St. Pats), there is something a little more magical and exciting to me about an Ottawa Senators - Montreal Canadiens game.
It's because I'm biased, of course. My wife cheers for the Senators, and I've been a life-long Montreal fan, because my mom grew up there. From a very young age, I visited the city to see many of her family's relatives and in-laws, and I just fell in love with the place. My wife cheers for the Senators, by the way, because she wanted to start a little hockey rivalry at home, to make it more interesting. At first, she supported the Canadiens, but when she saw how well Ottawa did during the regular season, she switched teams on me.
Recently, I decided it was time to introduce the rivalry through the two most important members of our family. While shopping through a local mall, I noticed some really cool baby clothes with team logos all over them. I think it's important to note here that, as in all adult sizes of clothing with sports logos on them, licensed sports merchandise for babies is twice as expensive as regular baby clothing, and not really quite as good a quality as it should be for the price. But, because I'm a doting dad, it was worth it to see them in their little team clothing anyway.
Here's the result, with Morgan siding together with Mom for the Sens, and Liam with Dad and the Canadiens.
Calling the play-by-play...
Isn't she cute?
The new season starts in early October.
