Olé! Olé! Olé!

My wife, my daughter, and I went to Montréal the weekend before Christmas. The highlight was Saturday. After a quick shopping spree on Rue Ste. Catherine, we had a late lunch at La Binerie in the Plateau Mt. Royal. This 20-year old restaurant serves traditional Québec food. We had meatloaf with mashed potatoes and baked beans chilli. But the best was smoked meat poutine with enormous cheese curds. We finished with tarte au sucre (a butter tart the size of a pie) and pudding chômeur (a sponge cake doused in caramel sauce).

We then made our way down Rue St. Denis and saw a few spots where I used to hang out with my friends and drink pitchers of Sangria during warm summer Montréal days. But there was no time to reminisce too long: it was frigid. -15 without taking into account the windchill factor, and we had a hockey game to catch.

Les Canadiens de Montréal were playing against the Detroit Red Wings, a matchup between two original-six NHL teams. It might have been cold outside but Les Canadiens were hot that evening. They won the game 5 to 1. The atmosphere in the Centre Bell was electric, the music deafening, and the light show mesmerizing.

The crowd was cheerful chanting Go Habs Go! to encourage Les Canadiens, Hey! Hey! Hey! after each goal scored by the home team, and Olé! Olé! Olé! in the third period when victory was unmistakable.

The most memorable goal was Montréal’s fifth. As Emma and I were sarcastically commenting on Gallager’s play, he found a loose puck in the offensive zone and rocketed it into the Red Wings’s net with a typical Gally slap shot. We jumped from our seats laughing and joined the 20000+ crowd pumping their fists into the air.

At the end of the game in response to the reporter’s question how Les Canadiens won, the first star, Juraj Slafkovsky, offered a deeply philosophical explanation: “We scored more goals than them.” 

As we exited the Centre Bell, Emma, proudly wearing her Suzuki jersey among the statues of some of Les Canadiens’ greats, told us it was one of the best experiences of her life. This warmed my heart. We were all happy and I felt very fortunate to be here in my hometown with my family.

I hope you can enjoy such a moment with your loved ones. Merry Christmas and best wishes for the New Year.

This post is written by my husband, a Habs fan.