Sports caves, which English speakers affectionately call “man caves,” are becoming more and more popular. Sports fans are ready to do anything to make their basement an anthology room where they can gather to show their love for their favorite team, regardless of the discipline.
The Journal toured a few towns in the province, looking for some hidden treasures and came across some real gems that you will be happy to discover.
Going down the stairs leading to the basement, the guest and the photographer already don’t know where to turn. The table is set while the famous goalkeeper Patrick Roy is in the spotlight.
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Photo Pierre-Paul Poulin / Le Journal de Montréal
If the immense cellar in the colors of the Montreal Canadiens is mind-blowing, it is perhaps by opening a very small drawer that Sunil Peetush, known as Sunny, lets us guess the extent to which his love of Roy goes into excess.
The simple sight of a Roy O-Pee-Chee brand card, when he was a rookie for the CH, would be enough to increase the heart palpitations of many hockey fans. However, Peetush has around a hundred of them, several of which are in excellent condition.
Photo Pierre-Paul Poulin / Le Journal de Montréal
“I still collect Patrick’s cards,” he says with a smile, explaining that the evenings are rare when he doesn’t spend a few minutes checking to see if a new one has appeared on some resale site.
Precious photo
The madness surrounding this Patrick Roy rookie card is the perfect symbol to illustrate the beginnings of Peetush’s impressive collection of items bearing the image of the Canadian. In a corner of the living room, the host immediately presents a framed photo where, when he was a teenager, we see him in the company of his idol.
“This photo has great sentimental value,” he says, explaining that Roy was then the subject of a promotion for Pro Set hockey cards in a Zellers in Pointe-Claire. That morning, I arrived at the store first, well before opening.”
Photo Pierre-Paul Poulin / Le Journal de Montréal
It was in 1993, a little before the Canadian’s last Stanley Cup victory. It was also less than three years before the Habs traded Roy to the Colorado Avalanche in December 1995.
“Everyone has dark periods in their life, events that affect the rest of their existence and, for me, there is the death of my father and, then, it is the exchange of Patrick, certainly, mentions Peetush. I was still young and I realized that hockey is not just a sport, but it is also a business. It marked me for the rest of my life.”
Follow Roy to Colorado
Despite his original passion for Roy and the Canadian, the fan has also carefully followed the actions of his favorite goalie in the Avalanche uniform.
“I never let go of the Canadian, but I never stopped following Patrick when he continued his career in Colorado,” says Peetush. It was also pleasant to support the Canadian at the same time, on one side, and Patrick with the Avalanche, on the other side. He was so successful there, it was incredible! I shared the joy linked to his successes also because I grew up with him.
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Photo Pierre-Paul Poulin / Le Journal de Montréal
Beyond Roy’s maps, the supporter has acquired, over the years, numerous pieces of equipment that belonged to Casseau. Leggings, mitts, blockers and sticks. In a room adjacent to his Canadiens basement, he also has a complete Roy kit in Avalanche colors.
“I got this kit thanks to Bob Hartley,” he explains.
Peace with Tremblay
With hindsight, Peetush has gained maturity and recognizes that the exchange of Roy by general manager Réjean Houle was a shared fault.
“Patrick was too hot and the Canadian didn’t know how to handle the event,” he believes.
Like the goalie, Peetush also made peace with former Canadian player Mario Tremblay, who was obviously the team’s head coach at the time of the famous transaction. He has even already welcomed the “bionic cornflower” into his home.
“For me, because of my love for Roy, it’s absolutely incredible to have had Mario Tremblay in my basement,” confides the fan.
He even took the opportunity to have Tremblay autograph photos recalling the sad events of December 1995.
Price in the toilet!
If he truly worships Roy, Peetush admits that he has never been able to love another Canadian goalie so much. Even Carey Price never managed to completely seduce him. Moreover, if he has some precious objects from Price at home, including a few masks, the majority are strangely found in the basement bathroom, for obvious reasons.
“I never totally liked Price, that’s a wink,” Peetush sums up, laughing.
A hair’s breadth away from being a Maple Leafs fan
A great collector of objects bearing the image of the Montreal Canadiens, Sunny Peetush was born in Lachine, grew up in Pierrefonds and is a cabinetmaker by profession. By looking into his past, however, we see that it was close to the man not being a fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Peetush says his parents were born in India, but after a few years in Germany, they immigrated to Canada.
“My father was a mechanical engineer and when he arrived in Canada, he filled out a survey to establish the city where he was going to work. If he hadn’t chosen Montreal, it would have been Toronto and I probably would have become a Maple Leafs fan.
During his childhood, Peetush remembers accompanying his father to work when he had to work on the lighting system at the old Montreal Forum. Instantly, the child had fallen in love with hockey.
