The Montreal Canadiens lost last night in overtime, 4-3 after leading the Toronto Maple Leafs for much of the game when Auston Matthews scored his second goal of the match. After the late game last season I was tempted to put something sarcastic up on Twitter, along the lines of, “Canadiens give us some comforting familiarity by proving that they can still snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.” But listening to the game and reading the quotes in the game summaries, I found the tones of cynicism inappropriate. There will be time enough later in the season, I trust, to complain about repeatedly losing in the last minutes of a game.
Last night hockey was on again for the first time in almost ten months, and it just felt good to have it on the radio, have the updates coming through my phone, and to see a bit of chatter on Twitter that wasn’t about, well, wasn’t about so many other things. As Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe put it, “Once the game starts, you’re caught up in it, it just feels like hockey.” Or, as CBC’s Joshua Clipperton put it, “if you closed your eyes, at times it felt like a normal game night.”
If you opened your eyes, of course, you noticed the empty stands, the coaches wearing masks, that the anthem was sung from the stands instead of the ice, and that front line workers introduced the Leafs’ starting lineup. The Leafs’ Mitch Marner would later flip a puck into the stands: a ritual offering to the spirit of the fans who could only witness the game through the witchcraft of television and radio.
On top of the comforting return of hockey, most commentators gave the extremely young, very new Canadiens team , despite the last-minute outcome. They played hard, scored often, just not quite often enough. The overall sense was that if the team continues to play this way, the wins will come. “For a week now we've been talking about not being able to score - well we scored three tonight,” Canadiens coach Claude Julien said. “It's a step in the right direction, but we gave up four, so we're going to keep working.”
Saturday, Montreal takes on Edmonton at 7 pm. Consider watching or listening to at least part of the game in English. The speed of sports can sometimes be daunting in a second language, but the repetition of particular verbs and nouns can also be extremely helpful, and making a practice of it will give you a feel for the idiomatic textures of the language.
by Nathan R. Elliott
Game Summaries
1. “Sports NetLife Tracker: Tor 4, Mtl 3.” SportsNet, Jan 13, 2021. 4 mins. Intermediate.
2. “Maple Leafs Light Lamp in overtime to claim opening night showdown with Canadiens.” CBC.
Jan 13, 2021. 5 mins. Intermediate.
3. “Rielly scores in overtime as Maple Leafs edge Canadiens in Opener.”SportsNet, Jan 13, 2021. 5 mins. Intermediate.