Montador's memory alive and well at Carcillo Cup celebration
— -- CHICAGO -- The pickles weren't good. They just weren't. They had a spicy kick, which was fine. They were also soaked in cherry red Kool-Aid, which wasn't.
Steve Montador loved them.
"People love them or they hate them. That's the deal," said Dr. Missy Holas, Montador's close friend and roommate when he lived in Chicago. "I love them. Maybe I love them because he loved them."
Holas' sister Michelle offered up the pickle taste test and then a tour of her sister's Chicago loft to point out all the other food that Montador loved.
There was barbecue from Lillie's Q, a rustic BBQ joint on North Avenue. There was sushi being served in another room from Coast Sushi Bar, a place nearby on Damen Avenue.
There were Swedish fish and bowls full of Turtles, the caramel chocolate candy. Montador, it seems, had a bit of a sweet tooth.
It was Saturday night and Holas was hosting a party at the loft near the United Center she shared with Montador, to properly kick off Daniel Carcillo's weekend with the Stanley Cup and launch his charity, Chapter 5. It was also a chance for the people who loved Montador to gather in one place, to celebrate his life one more time. Montador, a veteran of 571 NHL games, died on Feb. 15, 2015. His autopsy was inconclusive but it's believed he died of natural causes. He was 35.
The loft was expanded to accommodate all the people who wanted to attend, the garage incorporated with a lot of paint and a little additional lighting. The conversion worked not just because it eased the crowd but because it allowed guests to see the 1970 Ford Bronco that Montador had delivered last Christmas. The plan was a road trip back to suburban Toronto home this summer in the Bronco but there it sat, parked nearby, a presence in a room filled with friends and family.
Montador loved that truck. He would have loved the people at the party even more.
There were current and former hockey players. Carcillo. Ben Eager. Sean O'Donnell. Joe Corvo. Patrick O'Sullivan. Jamie McLennan. Rene Bourque.
That's expected.
There was also an artist, a chef, a doctor, a contractor, friends from the charity group Right to Play -- more people from outside the hockey world than inside.
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