“Our tables are smaller because we’re a European company; Europeans are smaller”- an idiotic IKEA saleswoman
Last week, an Ottawa radio commentator crossed the line when he jokingly suggested that Toronto Maple Leafs enforcer Tie Domi, beats his wife. Rather than dropping the gloves, Domi took the high road, saying the Ottawa Senator’s Peter Bondra’s referral to the Leafs-Senators playoff series as a “war” was disrespectful to Marines fighting in Iraq.
The pre-series spat only added to what may be North America’s greatest sports rivalry. While most will point to the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry as the greatest of all time, few seem to realize the viciousness of the beast in the normally peaceful and well-mannered people North of the border.
While Red Sox fans have their run of the mill “Yankees suck” chant, Ottawa musicians have recorded full-length ballads of their loathing for everything white and blue (the Leafs’ colors). In addition to War-rhetoric and dehumanizing propaganda, Ottawa loyalists in Toronto live in fear of being ostracized, or worse-receiving the evil eye from bystanders.
Part of the rivalry stems from Toronto’s loss of its monopoly over the NHL hockey in central Canada, when the Ottawa Senators restarted in 1993 as an expansion team after a seventy-year absence. Most infuriating to Torontonians, however, is the prospect that this reincarnated club may jump the queue and take the Stanley Cup before the Leafs, who have been waiting since 1967. It all adds up to a giant rivalry, and even if it gets overlooked in the states, everyone should tune in to see what real intensity is all about.
