A brother and sister from North York captured on video as the Toronto Maple Leafs got trounced by the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday have gone viral after a simple selfie seemingly captured the feeling perfectly among Leafs fans.
Seventeen-year-old Kosta Bourikas, a self-described “ginormous” Leafs fan, and his 20-year-old sister Patricia Bourikas were in Pittsburgh with family on Saturday. It is Kosta’s admiration of Sidney Crosby that sparked a tradition of going to games where the Leafs and the Penguins square off.
As the Penguins scored one goal after another on home ice — eventually winning 6-1 over the Leafs — a sense of disappointment grew among Leafs Nation. More than halfway into the third period of the game, Sportsnet showed a brief yet well-timed clip of Kosta and Patricia in their seats.
“I bleed blue-and-white. When they’re down 6-1, I’m going to be sad. I was sad the whole time. There’s other Pittsburgh fans all around us making fun of us, ‘Six goals, six goals,’ and then we’re just there,” Kosta said, donning his John Tavares jersey and clutching a Tavares figure.
“I’m just trying to watch the game. Obviously I’m depressed, she’s like, ‘Hey, how about a picture?’ She puts her phone to me. I give her a fake smile. I give her what she wants, so I just smiled and then I got back to how I was really feeling.’”
Patricia quickly jumped in to clarify that she was “trying to lighten the mood.”
Saturday’s loss marked the fifth loss in a row for the Leafs. Toronto is 9-9-4 on the season, has just two regulation victories in its last 15 games and sits 25th in points percentage with just 22 of a possible 44 so far in 2019-20.
However, it was that “fake smile” that caught the attention of hockey fans.
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“Resting Leaf face,” a Twitter user named Glen wrote.
“When your little sister insists on taking a selfie together,” Graeme Lind wrote.
Kosta and Patricia said their phones starting to go off seconds after the clip aired on television.
“Literally 10 seconds later I got a call from my friend, ‘You were on TV.’ I’m like, ‘No way.’ Yeah right, he’s messing with me,” he recalled.
“After I hung up the phone, my phone starts blowing up — text messages, ‘I saw you on TV.’ Then everyone was sending me a bunch of links to a bunch of GIFs being made of us, and funny videos and pictures of us and I couldn’t believe it.”
Patricia said she is still “shook” from the experience.
“My DMs on Instagram, on Facebook, on Snapchat even on Reddit — sites I haven’t even been on before. My phone is exploding, it’s crazy,” she said.
Making matters a little more bizarre for the siblings is that some thought they were a couple.
“They look like the most miserable couple ever,” Peter Connelly tweeted.
Patricia said she moved quickly to correct the record. Kosta and her both said they share a resemblance.
“No, not boyfriend and girlfriend — siblings — sister, brother. Yeah, that was awkward,” she said lightheartedly.
“I was trying to clarify on every page I could, ‘That’s my brother.’ You know, that’s my sibling.”
Meanwhile, when asked when they think the Leafs will win the Stanley Cup, the pair said they remain undeterred by the team’s performance this season.
“We’ve been rebuilding, I think. I think soon … I’m just ‘beleafing,’” she said, adding they’re a younger team but they collectively lack playoff experience compared to other teams.
“Hopefully really soon. I’m not saying this year, but hopefully in the next three or four years we can at least get one — that would be a dream come true.”
— With files from The Canadian Press
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