What a game! Saturday night was a traditional one in my household. It reminds me of my very humble beginnings as a Leafs fan when I was eleven years young. I started watching the Toronto Maple Leafs on CBC Television alone in my room on my very first television set. I watched every single Saturday and enjoyed watching Don and Ron on Coach’s Corner.
Today, I am a grown man still watching the Leafs on Saturdays, except instead of watching in my bedroom, I watch in the living room on the big screen TV. I love technology and have a lot of smart home items around my suite.
Just before the singing of the national anthem, I command my Google Home Mini, “Hey Google. Turn the living room lights red.” My living room becomes red and I stand to sing the national anthem. This is perhaps the only time I make noise in my condo. I proudly sing the Canadian anthem from the heart. I sometimes sing while holding a full-sized Canadian flag. If I am out at a bar, I proudly stand and sing in front of everybody.
After the anthems, I command Google Home to change the colours to blue for the Maple Leafs. Somehow this night I forgot to ask for the colour change and watched the entire game under red lighting.
The highlight of the game was Andreas Johnsson’s first NHL goal. What a smile. That guy had the biggest smile I ever saw. It was infectious as Zach Hyman and Connor Carrick rushed to embrace him with huge smiles. The entire team was elated to see the goal. The camera panned to the Leafs bench where we could see the likes of Patrick Marleau and Tyler Bozak smiling in happiness at witnessing this kid’s first NHL goal.
The Toronto Maple Leafs went on to defeat long-time rival Montreal Canadiens 4-0 without star goalie Frederick Andersen and star forward Austin Mathews.
I fell asleep shortly after the game and missed the St Patrick’s Day festivities at the local bars.