Dare I dream?

I should really know better by now than to dream about the Habs and playoff success, but they played very well tonight. It was Game 1 of Series 1, which means that there is a whole lot of hockey left to go before the Stanley Cup -- they should be wrapping up by June-ish, just in time for World Cup.

(Hockey season is far too long).

They beat the Washington Capitals, who are ranked #1, by a score of 3-2. In overtime. In proper overtime, no less. None of this '4 skater' nonsense or shoot-outs like in the regular season. That is demeaning to hockey. I'll bet, somewhere, that old-time hockey heroes roll in their graves during shoot-outs. But now that we are back to the playoffs, we are back to sudden-death overtime, and that makes for some good hockey.

Plekanec scored a super nice goal to win the game. Halak was a monster in net, with 19 saves (!) in the first period alone. And Montreal actually was skating, passing...all the things that they have been attempting to do (and not quite doing) for years. I mean, this is not a revival of 70s Habs hockey or anything, but when they had it together, they looked pretty good. Line changes...not so much.

I love how since the Olympics, suddenly everyone pronounces Plekanec's name differently, although I still don't think that most of the announcers have it right.

Okay, dare I say it: Go Habs Go! Although if history is anything to go by, they will win Round 1, then keel over and die in Round 2 (see, most recently, 2007-08, but it's happened a whole lot of times over the past 17 years since they last won the Stanley Cup).

....now that is amazing, it has been 17 years since they last won the Cup. Yeesh.