The Sens Army

Last Monday night (May 28), the Sens and Ducks began the final round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the city swung into full Sens Army mode. I picked up red "I believe" shirts for Tracey and me as well as a package of temporary tattoos for the boys. We scrambled to meet up after work with the Morley crowd, divvying up the BBQ shopping. While the moms were on a potato salad run, Jeremy suited up the kids, loaded them into the lil' red wagon and pulled them up to Baseline to watch the car rally en route to Scotiabank Place, where the game was being broadcast free to fans.

The parade of Sens-decorated cars had mostly passed by the time Trace & I caught up with the group, but we had a blast watching the kids try to elicit car honking from the evening traffic by jumping up and down on the roadside in their jerseys and tattoos, waving red pom-poms and screaming for the Sens. They were definitely an adorable sight, and most people leaned on their horns and waved as they passed. Sens-sleepers wearing Anabel joined in, too, oblivious to the significance of the night or even to the out-of-the-ordinary behaviour of her family.

Returning to the Morley, we quickly pulled together a yummy BBQ and cleared the table in time to take our seats in front of the large projection screen tv before the puck drop. At this point the boys, who had been talking all day about this event, plunked themselves down with Paul's vintage Star Wars toys and played Bad Guys for the duration--the game carrying on as large as life just over their small heads. Not to worry. They'd done their part to create good Sens Army juju. Watching the game itself can come later.

P.S. Same story for last night's first home game in the series. Whole day is built around getting to the tv in time to shout Game On! But precisely 40 seconds into the first period, Carter turned to Sam to ask "wanna play in my room?" and got an enthusiastic "yup!" in response. Off they went, leaving their moms on the edges of their seats (Jeremy had an arena seat!). In a few years, I'm sure we'll tease them about how they once chose to play "jump off the chair" in Carter's room instead of watching a wild, cup-contending Sens win on home ice.