Family playoff feud

Mayor Keith Hobbs loves the Boston Bruins so much he’s got their logo tattooed on his right arm.

He counts former Beantown tough guy Terry O’Reilly as a friend, and he’s got a framed photo of himself and Don Cherry nailed to his city hall office wall.

But as his beloved Bruins get set to take on the Vancouver Canucks in the Stanley Cup final, the mayor has just one question.

“Where did my son Scott go wrong in life?”

Scott Hobbs, who ran his father’s mayoralty campaign, taking a vocal, but little known retired police officer to the city’s top elected position, it seems is a diehard Vancouver Canucks fan.
The trash talking began the minute the Bruins clinched a berth in the final, the team’s first trip to the championship series in 21 years.

“I think we can see eye-to-eye on politics, but we’re going to have to agree to disagree on the hockey situation,” Scott said on Tuesday, proudly sporting his favourite Canucks jersey.

“We have wished for this series for a long time. We haven’t trash talked each other enough. We don’t get head-to-head trash talk,” the mayor said. “So it’s going to be great.”

It didn’t take long to start, once the two of them were in the same room together.

“I don’t mind Vancouver, but I’ve talked to some NHLers and they say they’re an ignorant team and that they don’t like them,” said the mayor.

“Yeah, but then I see Zdeno Chara’s beard, and I mean, enough said,” his son interrupted.
“I think Boston has a really good shot at them,” said the elder Hobbs, who developed his love for the Bruins at age five, when his English father looked at the sports pages, picked the last place team and forever hooked his offspring.

Scott comes by his love of the Canucks honestly. His mother grew up on the west coast and his grandfather liked Vancouver, so the youngster, then in Grade 5 or 6, jumped on the bandwagon and has been hooked ever since.

Both father and son have had to suffer through heartache after heartache over the years. Scott’s team last made the final in 1994, losing to the New York Rangers in Game 7. The Bruins, who last won the Cup during the Bobby Orr era in 1972, lost the final in 1974, 1977, 1978, 1988 and 1990, the last time they advanced to the final two.

“They don’t always get their just rewards, but this year, unfortunately for Scott, they’re going to,” the mayor said.

“I’ve got to argue with that. One look at the west coast offense, and just to see how dominant it has been in terms of the higher speed, the harder hitting, the faster action, the end-to-end hockey,” Scott said.

“They can’t even get the time right,” his father interjected. “They’re three hours behind us and they’re going to be three hours behind the Bruins.”

“The fact is, if you have a guy like Manny Malhotra as your third centre and he’s got a 61 per cent faceoff win percentage, that’s going to burn the Bruins,” Scott said.

“My spin on it is watch (Milan) Lucic. He’s been passing nice, he’s got a few goals. Vancouver’s his home, he’s going to shine for his hometown.”

But will father and son watch the games together? Scott, who works at Wesway, says it’ll have to happen at least once, though he’s promised to watch the first couple of games with his band mates.

“We’ll try one for sure,” he said, predicting a four-game sweep for the Canucks. Dad was a little less confident, picking the Bruins in six.

At stake?

The mayor has promised to wear a Canucks jersey at his first post-final news conference if Vancouver wins, while Scott Hobbs says he’ll raise the Bruins flag his father plans to fly at city hall should the Bruins prevail.