The post-mortem

Literally. One of the fans has written an obituary for our former, beloved Hab.

The only possible bright spot right now is the fact that while we may have lost our 'Habs Romance,' you can fit 'Carey Price' right into 'Poker Face' with zero difficulty:

Ca-ca-ca-ca-rey Price
Ca-ca-ca-rey Price.

Halak traded! HUH?

Where were you December 2, 1995?

Don't remember?

I remember it well. I was at Peel Pub, in downtown Montreal, watching mes Canadiens get shellacked by the Detroit Red Wings. The final score was 11-2. Newly appointed Mario 'Bluet bionique' Tremblay was behind the bench. Patrick Roy allowed nine goals and was finally pulled. When he came back to the bench, words were exchanged. It was clear that he was angry. The next day, what I feared most happened: my hero, my favorite hockey player since a young age, the guy who occupied an entire portion of my bedroom wall, was traded.

To the Colorado Avalanche.

Which used to be the Canadiens' arch-rival and nemesis, the Quebec Nordique.*

(It could have been worse. If they had traded him to Toronto, I probably would have cried for a decade).

Now, I don't want to pretend like June 17, 2010 will be seared into my memory in quite the same way, but I cannot believe that mes Canadiens just traded yet another goalie: Jaroslav Halak.

What? <-- you may be asking yourself. 'But he had such a great theme song.' But we're losing more than just an amusing Lady Gaga cover in this trade.

Commentary believes that perhaps he priced himself (ha!) out of the Canadiens' range, that we acquired potentially good players, and other speculation. I think that all of it is hooey. This guy just got the team through two very difficult rounds of the playoffs. You keep that guy. Carey Price on the other hand, has done basically bupkis apart from not living up to his potential. I didn't see much emergent potential last season from him. One theory is that Price gets traded too. Great. So then we have an unknown in net.

Has hockey really reached a point where you trade one of the most valuable players from your recent playoff run for two potentials? That's awful. Bad locker room karma. Mind you, I shouldn't be surprised seeing as how this franchise could also not keep one of its most dedicated and valuable players, Saku Koivu, in what may have been the last year of his career.

Oh, and in case you want to make some comparison with the Patriots cleaning house last year: I don't see these situations as parallel. The Pats had issues, primarily on the D, and they attempted to solve them. Halak, on the other hand, is likely at the top of his game -- or at least he was in that playoff run. You've just traded away a real asset on your team.

Current mood: severely unhappy.

*In a kind of James Bond, the villain always loses way, because they pretty much sucked and Montreal was pretty much awesome.

Habs even series at 1 apiece

The Canadiens came back yesterday with a 3-1 win over the Penguins. Halak was more Halakish, which is a promising sign. I didn't actually get to see the game, but was provided with ample and detailed updates from a friend. Yay technology!

One obvious Penguins fan on the Yahoo message boards asked what a 'Hab' was as disrespectful gesture. He was provided with the following response:

'What is a Hab ????

A Hab is a player who plays for a team that has won the most Stanley Cups ever and may just shock everyone this year !!

That is what a Hab is !!'

Used to be the most championships of any league, but those damned Yankees took us over.

I like our chances

Okay, I know that you never hear anything like that from me, the mega-pessimist fan. But after tonight's Game 1 of Montreal and Pittsburgh, I actually almost like our chances:

1. Tonight's team was tired. Very tired. Not sure if they will be awake by Sunday. But bearing that in mind, the game wasn't so bad.
2. Halak was definitely tired. Maybe you start Price next time. Maybe just some rest will help. Either way, get him more on his game, and maybe things will be okay.
3. The injury to Markov: if they can get a player up from the AHL, they can replace the missing defenseman. Again, they were already playing tried, then missing a player would have made them even more tired. That's fixable.
4. There is time to study some tape. The Penguins did some good things in this game, especially on the powerplay and defending against the powerplay. But I was seeing adjustments in the third period. You make some more, you look over what happened in this game, and voila, that's a formula for winning future games.

I have to say that for the first time in years, I really feel invested with this team. I like them. They can skate. They can pass. They have that certain je ne sais quoi associated with the Bleu-Blanc-Rouge (I believe the actual term for it is 'finesse'). Most of all, they had the grit and determination to come back from a 3-1 deficit and win Round 1. Go Habs go!

(Seriously, I don't remember the last time I felt this optimistic about a team, except maybe right after the Patriots signed Joey Galloway. Hm. I see. Optimism ends in ouch).

Habs win Round 1. Rating: Guarded Optimism

Now, I know that I am the eternal pessimist fan and that I had little/no faith in this year's Habs. But then I saw them in Round 1 and they played well, well enough that I thought, 'Maybe there is a chance.'

Well, there is more of a chance because they won a nailbiter on Wednesday, 2-1, to go on to Round 2. I almost got a bit teary-eyed, I am the first to admit. Coming back from a 3-1 deficit against the #1 ranked team was, for me, almost impossible, but somehow they did it.

It started with Halak's incredible amazingness in net. And we just went from there. Who knows if we can repeat this round (we haven't made it past round 2 in 17 years, after all). But wow, I am actually turning into almost an optimist.

Almost.

I still think we lose in Round 2, though.

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.

Halak in Georgia

Halak has flown to Georgia and may start tomorrow against the Thrashers.

May.

He is still battling the same virus. However, this is a drastic improvement from him not being with the team at all.

Habs end win streak

Carey Price was in net last night. The final score was 5-1 against Buffalo and that 1 was very last minute. Argh!

The CJAD sportscasters noted that while the first goal was probably not his fault, the remaining four were. There was even talk (by them) in the third of pulling him for the back-up you've never heard of (they needed a last minute guy because Halak has the flu).

I sure hope Halak is better for Friday!

Halak has the flu

If you think this could potentially be bad, then you are right. We do not need Halak out right now. However, the good news is that the Habs don't play again until Wednesday, so hopefully he will be cured by then. He missed practice today with the flu.

The Canadiens summarized in one word

So if I had to pick a word to describe les Habs this season, it would be 'streaky.' They win a lot, then they skid, then they win a lot again. Just look at how they have been doing in 2009 as proof: 6-2 in the first few weeks of January, then that dreadful 13-3 streak, and now 4 straight including games against teams who should have kicked our butts (last night, for instance, San Jose). I am not a big fan of 'streaky,' although it is naturally better than 'chokeur.' However, I just hope that we have not peaked too soon...there is still a lot of hockey to go.

Oh, and guess who was in net yesterday again? Halak.

This time in overtime

The Habs won! Again! 4-3 in overtime against the Flyers!

Now let's watch as Montreal fans everywhere start getting all excited again about how this could be the year...

Oh, and Halak was in net. Again!

We're not still pretending he's the back-up, right?

Montreal won! Again! Yes! Two in a row! Amazing, I know.

Jaroslav Halak got his first shut-out of the year in the 3-0 win against the Canucks (take THAT!). I would say that he has now earned his starter title, almost like he replaced the quarterback. I mean, he's clearly on the game, Carey Price is not.

Apparently Montreal players should be associated with purported organized criminals more often? I don't know. But keep up the turn-around!

The announcers noted that there was a key play by Patrice Brisebois to keep the shut-out intact near the end of the third. Also, does anyone else find it sad that the announcer at the Bell Centre says 'third' in a normal, English way now? It just destroys the whole fun of it really. Au moins on a toujours les Thrashers.

Guy Carbonneau unhappy with Carey Price

(I know, Superbowl was a week ago. Later today. It's been a hectic week, what with Bad Mormons in my crib and all).

The Canadiens are on the verge of a complete collapse, having lost 7 of their last 9 games. Not to mention that last night's loss was to the Leafs, which is clearly not okay. Guy Carbonneau seems to have one person in mind to blame from his quotes yesterday:

First, “we need everyone to play, and that includes our goaltenders,” said Carbonneau.

Then later, “Where do you want me to start? He gave up five goals.” (in response to a question about what he didn’t like about goaltender Carey Price’s performance against Toronto.).

Please tell me that we can get a 'playoffs?' rant soon with a Québeçois accent, because that would be awesome. (If you're curious, Jim Mora, coach of the Indianapolis Colts, was bitching about Peyton. Yes. Really.)

Incidentally, 'backup' goaltender Jaroslav Halak was supposed to start, but was sick.