A short story written by Canadian author Roch Carrier (originally titled 'Le chandail de hockey' in Canadian French) published in 1979, based on his own personal experience. Set before Quebec's Quiet Revolution, it tells the story about how, as a fan of the Montreal Canadiens, used to wear a sweater bearing the hockey team's symbol and color scheme along with his friends. When it worn out, his mother orders a new one, but to his horror, there was a mix-up with his order and he received the sweater of the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Canadiens' biggest rival, instead.
This short story was well received thanks to how it gave a great insight on the culture of hockey and how Canadians took it very seriously, and even got an animated film adaptation which won several awards.
This book provide examples of the following tropes:
- The '40s: The story is set in 1946.
- Adaptational Expansion: Downplayed: while the story ends with Roch's prayer for his sweater to be eaten by moths, the animated adaptation actually shows the moths devouring the sweater before Maurice "Rocket" Richard appears in the church and shakes Roch's hand. This still falls under No Ending since there's still no resolution to the story.
- Adults Are Useless:
- At least from Roch's perspective, all of the adults are completely out of touch with him and make no effort to understand why he's upset about having the wrong hockey jersey.
- Most egregious is his mother who insists that the wrong sweater was sent on purpose because "Monsieur Eaton" is a Leafs fan. In actuality, it was a shipping error and Eaton's policy was "Goods Satisfactory or Money Refunded" so an exchange for the proper sweater would have been done with no questions asked. There's also the fact that "Monsieur Eaton" had already passed away in 1907. Somewhat justified in that she doesn’t know how to read in English.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Once Roch is forced to wear his Toronto Maple Leafs sweater, all his other teammates no longer allowed him to play hockey with them.
- Canadian Equals Hockey Fan: The story is set in Montreal and tells about the author's experience with how seriously hockey is taken.
- Dramatically Missing the Point: Roch's mother claims that he should at least try the jersey he was given and has no idea how important having the right jersey is for his peers.
- No Ending: Roch is sent to the church by the pastor for his attitude where he prays to God to send "a hundred million moths" to eat his Toronto Maple Leafs sweater. What happens to him from then on out is anyone's guess, since the story ends there.
- No Sympathy: After Roch loses his temper, the priest concludes that he's in the wrong for getting angry and tells him to ask God for forgiveness.
- Rage Breaking Point: Roch puts up with being benched at first, but after he isn't allowed to replace an injured player, he loses his temper and smashes his stick.
- Rule of Symbolism: The story is seen as symbolic of Anglophone Canada's ignorance and mistreatment of Francophone Canada. At the time the story is set, The Montreal Canadiens were a team that represented French Canadians and the Toronto Maple Leafs represented English Canada. For a young fan of the Canadiens to receive a Maple Leafs sweater from an English retailer via a catalogue that wasn't published in French, is insulting not just to the child and his favourite team, but insulting to the entire province of Quebec.
Of course, while the story was commissioned by the CBC to Carrier as an essay to answer the question "What does Quebec want?", Carrier denies that it had any such meaning at all.
- Signature Line: "Go to the church and ask God to forgive you."
- Truth in Television: The hockey subculture depicted in the story is no exaggeration; Canadians really do take hockey this seriously that you could be shut out by everyone simply over what sweater you wear.
