Each Christmas for the past 15 years, I’ve returned to the city of my childhood, Toronto. It feels like the same city of immigrants united by their ethnic food, entrepreneurship, and gratitude for Canada’s polite and tolerant embrace. But this time is different. The Maple Leafs are winning. There’s even hope that this may be the year they win their first championship since 1967, the year before I was born to a rugby-loving family in South Africa.
Hockey is in my blood not by birth but, like other immigrants, by transfusion. Perhaps that explains, now that I am a U.S. citizen, why I’ve adopted the Washington Capitals as my team.
My Toronto friends call me a traitor. Most of my D.C. friends probably think the same. They have also remained loyal to sports teams from their childhood or college days.
But no one can accuse me of being a front-running bandwagoner. It’s not as if there was much benefit to being a Capitals fan for the past decade and a half. I pledged my loyalty to the Caps when there was no hope. It was as brutal as being a Leafs fan. I sat in a half-empty arena that was eerily quiet until, every so often, one man blew three times into a plastic horn, prompting those few demoralized yet tenacious fans to chant in response, “Let’s go Caps.”
Then the Caps drafted Alex Ovechkin. I cheered as the most exciting hockey player since Pittsburgh’s Mario Lemieux turned the team into a contender and electrified the fan base. I smiled at the influx of new Caps fans who labored to decipher the offside and icing rules — things Canadians learn before they can walk.
Yet there was still season after season of heartbreak. They were a team that dominated the regular season consistently, but choked in the playoffs, most painfully to Sidney Crosby’s hated Penguins.
Then came the 2017-18 season.
The regular season looked like the others. The Caps again finished at the top of their division. And then the playoffs started. Deep breath. Brace yourself for a choke at the hands of the Penguins or New York Rangers. Lose. Go back to your life of Washington’s miserable politics and policy.
And then they won. They won again. And again. I flew to Tampa to see them win the semifinals against the Lightning. Again, the Canadian in me smiled. It was poetic justice. Hockey should not be played in a city with palm trees and beautiful, tanned fans.
Then I was at Game Four to see them get within one game of clinching the cup against the Las Vegas Golden Knights. Of course, Vegas is another city that is probably too warm for a hockey team, but it’s Vegas, so we’ll let this one slide.
And then, they did it! They were Stanley Cup champions for the first time in their 43-season history. Ovechkin hoisted the Stanley Cup and the Conn Smythe Trophy as the Most Valuable Player of the playoffs. It was the happiest day of my life (sorry, darling).
We were champions. Washington fans turned out in the tens of thousands on a sunny day for a parade and party. It was an ocean of red on the National Mall. Throngs of fans gathered to listen to speeches from Ovi, T.J. Oshie, Niklas Backstrom, Braden Holtby, and the others. Everyone forgot about the city’s political dysfunction and partisan rancor. Washington fans, young and old, felt blessed to be alive. For natives and adoptive fans, that parade ended years of hockey heartbreak.
Over the summer, the Caps players traveled around the country and abroad with the cup. Often, they used it to guzzle beer or some other intoxicating drink. I’d be surprised if any of the players were sober over the summer, based on the photos.
Summer gave way to fall and to the 2018-19 season. Asked what his goal was for the new season, Oveckin replied in his Russglish: “Not suck. Back-to-back.” Translation: Don’t embarrass the fans by playing poorly in the regular season. And then win another cup.
A good motto, but how would the championship affect the team and a fan base conditioned to disaster and heartbreak? Predictably, Ovechkin set the mood. He arrived at training camp ready to roll. He has been on fire ever since. Through 41 games, he had scored a league-leading 30 goals and had the Caps atop the Metropolitan Division. They were ahead of the reviled Penguins and the Columbus Blue Jackets.
As I write this, the Leafs, remarkably, are in second place in the Atlantic Division, keeping hope alive in Toronto. And the Caps players seem relaxed.
My Canadian friends wonder if I might cheer on the Leafs. I did on Saturday night when I went to the game in Toronto against the Rangers. But I’m a Caps fan now. It’s not just because D.C. is my home. It’s also because hockey is fun to watch again with the monkeys of playoff heartbreak no longer on my back.
Mark Dubowitz is chief executive of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He played hockey and rugby in his youth. Neither very well.
