The crowd is at its loudest and most passionate, O Canada rings a bit louder and it means a bit more, and thousands of people without tickets are crowding the outside of the arena. Everyone feels it.
It’s special, more intense, more electric when the Toronto Raptors open the playoffs at the Air Canada Centre, an atmosphere that is different from any other.
And then the Raptors lose and the edge is taken off.
Every time they have begun a playoff series at home — as favourites, as kids, as veterans, as whatever else you can be — the Raptors have ailed, a Game 1 loss that momentarily dampens the enthusiasm across the city.