Ok, well i'm sorry to all who were waiting about not writing on this sooner.... I have no other excuse than utter laziness...Well...for anyone in Montreal (and more recently all of Canada, since we're the only canadian time still in the 2008 NHL Hockey Playoffs) who wasn't living under a ROCK for the past month knows...the town is literally carzy over the amazing 2008 season the Montreal Canadiens (Habs) hockey club has had.... Top of the eastern conference, 104 points total, Alexei Kovalev big wake-up/comeback year, the explosion of young talents like the Kostityn Brothers (Andrei and Sergei), Carey Price, Tomas Plekanec and of course the brilliant coaching by second-year as head coach Guy Carbonneau (who won Montreal's last Stanley Cup in 1993 as team captain)....
Coming into the playoffs with boosted confidences and egos, they had a rough seven games against the Boston Bruins, team whom they had swept 8 - 0 in 8 games during regular season...Most people in Montreal and hockey analysts had predicted an easy win for the Habs, but such was not the case..... Rookies on the team learned then and there, being forced into a 7th do-or-die game, that the regular season, once playoffs had started, meant nothing....
But Carbonneau's lucky ugly tie and Carey Price's bouncing back from a 2 game slump aiding, Montreal won that game 5 - 0 and headed on the the second round of playoff glory against the Philadelphia Flyers...
Again, a team we had swept in regular season 4 - 0... Again, analysts and Montrealers in general cockily predicted an easy enough win for their favorites, thinking their first-round debacle against a surprisingly fit and determined team had taught them SOMETHING!!!....
Well, Montreal confidently won their first battle, winning game 1 by a score of 4 - 1...
But then, a wall suddenly drew itself on the Habs' horizon...Marty Biron...a Quebec City-born and raised veteran (30 years old) back-up goalie who was at his first experience as starting goaltender in his career...
Standing tall and wanting to win more than anything, being a childhood fan of now defunct Quebec Nordiques, Montreal's biggest rival in hockey ever to skate the game, Biron won almost by himself the following 3 games, defending his net at times almost standing on his head.....
I'll leave out all the little instances and incidents who have led up to this, but that's the main lines of it...
So, tonight is make or break night in Bell Centre, Gauchetiere Street, Montreal.... The Habs have to win the following 3 games in order to not get eliminated and eliminate Philadelphia....An almost impossible feat they DID accomplish once in their history, not so long ago, in 2004, against the Boston Bruins....
So, everyone here in Montreal (and I do mean EVERYONE, as I have personally heard muslim friends of mine say they were gonna pray in mosque for them) is on their toes about tonite..... Team hasn't been this good in 15 years, and people do NOT want it to end just now....
So...... GO HABS GO!!!!!!
