In the Trenches: Stories from Bruins & Habs fans in Montreal

A lot has been said about the Chara-Pacioretty incident. We’ve given our opinions of the hit, we’ve shown some disturbing images created by a Habs fan that was forwarded to us and talked about some of the antics of the side-show acts going up in Montreal. You’d think Boston nuked Montreal there’s so much hate raging up north — WWIII is upon us. And the classyness of some Montreal fans continued this morning with some folks making Bruins-Japan jokes.

Just wow. Bodies still floating on shore and this assclown’s cracking jokes. Truly disturbing.

In short, Montreal Canadiens fans are pissed. We get that. There’s a backlog of 911 calls to prove it. But it’s one thing to be pissed off at Zdeno Chara and another thing to take that anger and direct it at innocent people. And sadly, it seems like a lot of Habs fans don’t seem to know the difference.

We’ve gotten two emails over the past 48 hours — a thoughtful note from a Canadiens fan and one from a Bruins fan, both living in the Montreal area. We’re going to show both sides of the coin and hopefully some of these Montreal fires will be doused (pun only mildly meant).

We’re hoping that after this post we don’t have to do another Chara-Pacioretty post. It’s getting tiring and it’s like beating a dead horse. We’ve probably contributed to the horse beating, but we think these emails are important to put everything that’s gone on this week into context and in hope that people will chill the fuck out.

After the jump… their stories…

We’re not providing full names or email info for these guys. We appreciate their stories but don’t want them bombarded with emails.

From Bruins fan Chris N., living in Montreal
So yeah, Basically it’s been rather difficult to be a Bruins fans here in Montreal ever since the Chara incident. It’s not really a continuous story, what’s happened, so I guess I’ll just bullet point it, make it simpler.

– The texts I’ve received… wow. Some tell me how much they hate the Bruins, while others state that I’m just as detestable for liking them, kinda like if being a Bruins fan meant that I enjoyed seeing players laying still on the ice after getting their faces crushed into a post. Maybe I forgot to read, at the bottom of the “be a Bruins fan” contract, the small print that said “you not only enjoy, but actively take part, in every bone crunching hit laid out by any member not only of the Bruins, but of the NHL.” Ummm not really, no. Most texts were just general disgust at the whole play and telling me that Chara was a big ball of disgusting; I can live with that, it’s understandable for sure that they be mad at Chara, who isn’t? I’d quote some, but I don’t have a smartphone = limited txt message space

– Tweets and DMs: well actually those are still there. Well not the DMs, because I can delete those, but I attached 2 @tweets as a picture. Basically, the guy, one of the most active retards during the whole ordeal, was telling me that Kubina’s flying elbow < Chara’s hit on patches, and that if Kubina got 3 games for JUST that, then Chara should have season off to think about what he did. I didn’t get THAT many tweets though, followed the aftermath of the hit w/o really commenting, although man did I unfollow some retards (@kyleroussel was a shockingly great idiot for a proficient writer…).

– Fb: now here is where things got a little messed up. I attached a couple printscreens again of the “worst” that remains on my wall, because I deleted a loooooot of the shit. Apart from above examples, there was a guy who commented relentlessly (as in, I would delete his post, and he would repost) on a status of mine saying that Patches had returned home, and would say “I hope Chara never leaves his ever again”.

Translation: The Bruins are fat Sons of bitches; fucking huge babies who always need to hit people to prove their so-called superiority

Translations: * Those who want to paddle Chara, clap your hands (clap clap)

* “latter”[to paddle], is the action of hitting some with paddles (made of wood)!!!

* comment #2: The only way to send him a message from the Habs is to knock him out with a stick, like a baseball bat. No other way

And then, the delicious part, my newest picture album. Basically, a friend tipped me off on where the Bruins stay in Montreal every time they come, and told me that you can actually wait in front of the hotel, and about 3 hours before the game, the players start coming out, and they take pics + autographs and stuff sometimes, etc etc. Well I’ve never met a Bruin, or even seen him live except from the topmost row of either the Garden or the Bell Center, so to actually be 3 feet away from my 23 idols was something that made me, even as a man, very very wet. Finally, day comes, have a beautiful time taking pictures and getting autographs, and getting to laugh with Timmy Thomas about his mustache, and I then post the pictures on fb. Man you should have seen what happened to the one pic I have with Chara. Comments telling me that they’re going to report the picture (which they did, nothing happened though obv), telling me that since I’d taken this pic, I’d never get a job, comments of general disgust, people telling me that they never thought I could do something as horrible as taking a pic with a man like that (even though all pics were posted waay before the hit), and on and on and on.

Listen, I’m not here to make a case about how they “ruined my special day with the Bruins”, and how “they all made my life terrible, but I mean COME ON. these pics were up way before the game, yeah I took a pic with him, is that because I KNOW that he’s gonna break a dude’s neck? NO, it’s because it’s Zdeno effing Chara, the captain of the Boston Bruins and defensive superstar. Is it because I took a pic with the Bruins captain that I automatically agree with what he did, and even took part in it, and that I think it’s cool that he broke a dude’s neck, like some guy’s comment was stating “Chris, he broke a guy’s neck….”.Yeah he did, doesn’t mean that 4 hours before the incident, I didn’t really like him and want his pic + autograph.

Although I must admit that many Habs fans came at me aggressively after the game, many heard what I had to say, and at least were calmed by my words, whereas other were just class A asshole who didn’t want to hear anything beyond what they wanted to hear. Try to reason, and they will tell you “I KNOW HE WANTED TO KILL HIM, LOOK HE SHOVED HIM THE GAME BEFORE, IT OBVIOUSLY MEANS HE WAS GOING TO ATTEMPT TO MURDER HIM NEXT GAME OMG OMG OMG”. By the way, “Chara didn’t try to hit him, he was actually trying to murder him” was a comment that came up oooover and over and over.

So there you have it, from a Bruins fan in Montreal, the proof that Montrealers can indeed be excessively stupid in the fangirlness, although I must say there were a number of them who wanted to hear what I had to say, enjoyed hearing it, and were actually looking to make an informed opinion after hearing a number of them, including mine as a Bs fan. But sadly, the one’s who didn’t want to hear, just wanted to shout it, were much, much louder than the sensible ones. And that’s why I enjoyed your blog so much.

Which actually reminds me that when I posted the video of Upshall getting his head rammed into the turnbuckle, people defended the hit saying it wasn’t as hard, as fast, the guy had just passed the puck, there was no injury, and all in all, it was actually a good hit. WTF, have you SEEN this? same freaking thing, minus the lucky non-injury!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPB_VZurpbI&w=480&h=390]
A final though… you know the worst thing to come out of all of this for me is? My warmest scarf is a Bruins scarf, but since I can’t really wear any Bruins merch for the time being, I am not freezing the the cold and rainy Mtl rain. There, screw you montrealers.

-Chris

From Jay S., Habs fan in Montreal
I believe the article was written by Mr. Jon so if there is any way he could read this, I would appreciate it.

Sir, I’m speaking to you as a fan of hockey and not a fan of the Montreal Canadiens, I agree with you in most parts. Zdeno Chara is not a dirty player. When he receives boos in Montreal, he should think of it as a compliment because he is just that good of a player and we would love to have such a physical specimen such as himself on our team. It was an accident gone terribly wrong. Involving the police is completely out of line, I agree wholeheartedly. How it started though, if I recall correctly, was with a radio commentator urging his listeners to file complaints to the police. Most of the complaints were filed multiple times by the same person. It honestly is a shame, considering the majority of the people here are very kind people and have no ill thoughts towards Boston, its players or the Bruins organization. For us, our number one priority is the well-being of Max Pacioretty and it’s a great feeling to know that he’s started to walk again.

I just don’t want you to get a bad idea of the city of Montreal and its citizens. There will always be stupid people wherever you go. All they like to do is stir the pot. One day, they chirp Carey Price. The other day, they call him “Jesus Price”. But I can tell you from experience that at the Bell Center, the boos are quickly silenced with GOOD PEOPLE showing their disbeliefs towards the idiots. I have been living in Montreal for 20 years. Well, I was born here. And you can classify me as being part of a minority. Never have I witnessed a classless act from these people. It’s just unfortunate this side of Montreal is being shown because if you were here, you would see that most people are sending their best wishes to Max and hoping that we can move on from this incident.

Just one thing, the riots you and everyone witnessed during the playoffs were actually triggered by a gang full of thugs here in Montreal. They used the playoff series victory as a means to loot stores. If you read reports about it, they have criminals caught on tape relating to other robberies and vandalism. Just putting it out there.

If you go on the Canadiens webpage, many wrote heartfelt messages to him and many also said they want the issue to be put aside. We do not hate the Bruins. We do not hate the players. And we certainly are not classless people, sir.

I know me telling you that will not change your mind but I hope you do reconsider it one of these days and I hope you can overlook the idiots that are trying to make us look bad. Thank you and I hope I did not offend you in any way. If you do get the time and if you do get this message, I hope to hear from you.

– Jay
——

There you have it. Two emails. One from a Bruins fan and the other from a Habs fan.

We’re hoping cooler heads prevail before something really dumb happens. It’s just a hockey game. Bruins fans didn’t check Pac into the turnbuckle and don’t deserve death threats. No one should have to worry about literaly getting jumped because of a team jersey. It’s a sports team, not a gang. Bruins-Habs insn’t the Crips and Bloods. At the same time, not all Habs fans are batshit insane and we’re hoping that Bruins fans will show more class when the Habs are in town in a few weeks.

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In the Trenches: Stories from Bruins & Habs fans in Montreal

Alan Draper

Alan Draper

Alan Draper