She's no fan

If anyone is happy that the Yarmouth Mariners season has come to an end, it’s probably my sister Lisa.

That’s because now she can get finally get her family back, in particular mom and dad.

To say my parents are huge Mariners fans probably isn’t putting enough emphasis on just how much they love this team, particularly this year.

Which is why the last time Lisa was visiting from Halifax she had to ask, “How are the Mariners impacting my life now?”

This coming from a girl who wouldn’t know a Chavira from a Soucy, and who has never been to a Mariners game in her life.

Unlike the Comeau portion of the clan in Yarmouth, her life doesn’t revolve around hockey for nine months of the year (11 if you count the NHL playoffs and summer hockey).

The poor thing called me around the start of April saying that she and her husband wanted to go away for a weekend and she’d need mom and dad to babysit.

“Well, it can’t be the weekend of…” I started to say before she cut me off saying, “I know, I know.” Mom had already told her it couldn’t be the weekend of the Fred Page Cup, even though at the time the Mariners weren’t in yet.

But we already had our reservations booked in New Glasgow, just in case.

Instead she had picked the weekend before, which didn’t look to be a problem until the schedule came out for the final series between the Mariners and Woodstock. If the series went to a Game 7 it would be April 19, right smack in the middle her weekend away.

Don’t get me wrong, my parents adore and love my nieces…but enough to miss Game 7 of the final series when the MJAHL championship title is in the line?

It’s a question I think my sister already knew the answer to.

So with each win and loss we’d update her on whether she’d be able to get away. If things had gone according to our plan, and the Mariners had won the series in five games, there wouldn’t be a problem. But when do things ever go according to plan? Don’t you suppose Game 6 fell within the 48-hour window of opportunity she had to cancel her reservation before getting dinged with the bill. So she cancelled. The Mariners won. She and husband stayed home.

We, on the other hand – me, my two boys, two other hockey moms and their two boys, and mom and dad – made the trek to New Glasgow for the Fred Page Cup as we had planned. Us a few hundred other Mariners fans.

My parents called it their hockey honeymoon.

It was a unique experience cheering for our home team as the visiting crowd. The one thing I was struck by was how few Pictou fans were in the stands for the Mariners-Pictou games, considering we were in Pictou territory. I wouldn’t say the Yarmouth fans outnumbered the Pictou fans, but on the other hand, I wouldn’t say the Pictou fans so much outnumbered the Yarmouth fans.

And they were a quiet lot, not like the boisterous bunch we’re used to at the Mariners Centre. The announcer (no Wade Cleveland, I might add) would do his thing, “Let’s make some noise, let’s here it for your Crrruuussshhhherrss…..”

And then there was nothing. I swear once I heard crickets chirping outside. Weird crowd, I thought, although in the end they had plenty to cheer about when the Crushers beat the Mariners in the semi-final.

No final for us. We disappointedly headed home.

On the way we stopped at Lisa’s for a visit. Finally at one point she says to us – us being me and mom – “Okay, can we talk about something other than the Mariners?”

I guess we were still reliving every moment, every play, every goal, every call.

To be honest, I can’t remember what the conversation shifted to after that, but I think Lisa realized she was fighting a losing battle.

“It’s okay,” she said about 20 minutes later. “I know it’s killing you guys not to be talking about the Mariners.”

The next night there was a rally for the team at the Mariners Centre, and by the next morning half the team had already left town.

I wouldn’t be surprised if my sister had arranged their transportation.