Stress ratchets up for Habs fans in playoffs

Source : Montrealgazette.com

When the plane she was on landed at Trudeau airport at 6:45 p.m. on June 9, 1993, Josie Gold did something out of character.

She jumped the queue at customs.

With the customs area teeming with people, Gold went to the front of the line, told a woman she had an “emergency” and asked if she minded if she joined her there in the queue.

What Gold didn’t say is that it was a hockey emergency.

She had tickets that evening to see Game 5 between the Canadiens and the Los Angeles Kings — which turned out to be the night the Habs last won the Stanley Cup.

Gold, a mother of four boys, will be glued to the television watching the Canadiens’ first game in round one of the Stanley Cup playoffs next week, tentatively slated for Tuesday at the Bell Centre.

It’s gut check time for Habs fans. The Canadiens have lowered many playoffs expectations by limping through the final stretch of the regular season. But the playoffs are a season unto themselves — where the action, excitement and stress ratchets up. Add a potential Habs-Leafs matchup into the mix next week — the first since 1979 — and the ingredients are there for some nerve-racking viewing.

Gold said she gets “pretty stressed” watching playoff games.

“I like to think that I’m polite in my screaming, but apparently my husband said I’m not so polite,” said Gold, who watches the games with her sons.

“I have one son who prays to the picture of (Jean) Béliveau that we have in the house.”
They also have “little, silly rituals,” she said.

“We sit on the couch when we win, you stay on the couch on that side the next game. If they lose, then it’s our fault we have to switch seats.”

When the Canadiens are behind and need to rally “we all have to stand on the coffee table,” Gold said.

“We are very stressed, but we do take it that it is just hockey. It’s fun and it’s family time.”
During the thrilling game against the Boston Bruins last month that the Canadiens eventually came back and won 6-5 in a shootout, Montreal actor and Habs fan Jay Baruchel tweeted: “Ulcertown, Qc. Population me.”

Asked how stressed he gets watching the playoffs, Baruchel said: “The best answer is fairly or a lot.”
“It’s the sum of my hopes and dreams for the team, so when they finally get there it means the world,” he added.

“It’s a special time of year because it’s the start of summer. We get so little summer here. And the years when we’re not in the playoffs it’s not the same here.

“So you just want the magic to keep going and anything that gets in the way of that is horrifying.”
As for the potential of the Habs facing the Leafs, Baruchel said “the current Habs fan in me and pragmatist is probably a tad concerned. But the lifelong Habs fan in me is incredibly excited. This is a playoff series I’ve dreamed of for the better part of my life. And also I don’t want to give them the benefit of my fears.”

Rich Lenkov grew up in Chomedey rooting for the Habs and still follows the team from Chicago, where he works as a lawyer.

“I’d love to see them play the Leafs in the opening series as it looks like they may,” he said.

Don’t count Lenkov among those Habs fans who are afraid of the Leafs.

“No, we never fear the Leafs. I hate the Leafs. ... So I’m confident that we’re going to play ’em and crush them. And just the tradition, biggest rivalry and it will be a great series, but confident that we’ll prevail,” said Lenkov, who added he’s pretty vocal when he watches a game on television.

Leonard Fleisher, a retiree who started to become a serious Habs fan in the mid-1940s and remembers the Punch Line with Maurice Richard, Elmer Lach and Toe Blake, sounds like he takes the playoff excitement in stride.

“I’ve watched too many games to be nervous about it,” Fleisher said. “I’m not nervous about it, but I am excited, especially in a close game.”

The Canadiens could be in trouble if they face Toronto “because the Leafs are bigger and stronger,” Fleisher said.

“If they come out hitting the smaller Canadiens they could slow them down and we could be in trouble that way.”