PINCH ME…AM I DREAMING?

It’s not everyday one sees a grown man cry. The rare occasions are when a child is born, when the little toe is stubbed, or on weekends where there’s more double headers and triple headers than there is ugly on Brin D’Amour’s face.

I begin the day with a little University football quarter final action. The Concordia Stingers visit the Laval Rouge et Or for the QUFL championship. For those who might need a University football 101, here’s a little background. The Canadian league is divided in to sub leagues, the one for Quebec being the Quebec University Football League) QUFL). The winners of the sub league face each other in the semi-finals, and obviously the two winners face each other for the Vanier Cup (Canadian champions). The Laval Rouge et Or has won the Vanier cup twice in three presences at the final match during the past three years. They are based out of Quebec City, and as the largest sports organisation in La Capital National they have a larger budget than 80% of Canadian Universities put together. They are ranked #1 in Canada, and have been for a while.

Notoriously the Concordia Stingers have faced the Rouge et Or for the QUFL finals as the strongest team based out of Montreal. They are ranked 8th in the country, and have lost to the Rouge et Or almost every game. The last time the Stingers won the QUFL championship was 2002 and 1998 where they went all the way to the finals, only to loose in a heartbreaker of a game.

As an alumnus of Concordia, I watch them face goliath in the form of Rouge et OR every year. This year will be no different, and I know our dear General (who is currently a student there) will be supporting his team. Maybe the Admiral will join us too (oh come on…we’re the same school now!).

Getting back on topic, this game ends at 3:00pm…guess what starts at 3:00 pm………..excuse me I’m starting to weep……So the HABS roll into Ottawa after a few bad performances with stolen points, and Ottawa welcomes us after loosing to the worse team in the East. I eagerly wait to see how inspired we’ll jump out of the gates. We’re going to have to make swiss cheese out of Gerber early to take this one, and we’re going to have to play a fast passed, hustle along the boards, take the body type of game. Our third and fourth trios will have their hands full with the top #1 line in the league, and several scoring leaders. Unfortunately there are no shortcuts today, and the whole team from the goalie to the defence to the offence will have to do their jobs to a “T”. If we can run away with two points here and dish out a second loss in a row to the Sens, it might send a message to the whole league that they are beatable, and open up the NL flood gates for the #1 ranked team.

This game ends at 7:00pm, and the double header begins. I’ll have a choice of watching a tired Toronto get spanked, or an overly cocky Crosby get knocked down a peg by the Decepticons…I mean Flyers.

Now that’s what I call a perfect Saturday. Bring on the chicken wings and my 2/4, this HABSy is out of commission for the day :D