Habs Hold Edge Over Bruins In Games Seven

The Montreal Canadiens, with a 4-0 victory over the Boston Bruins forced a deciding game seven in their current NHL playoff round. Game seven; get used to hearing that little phrase because it will be everywhere over the next 36 hours or so. 

The Canadiens and Bruins are no strangers to seventh game match-ups, having met in eight over the years. The Habs hold a five to three advantage over the Bruins in games seven. Yep, games seven is how I believe the plural should be put. Much like Governors General and Courts Martial, it is the number of games that is pluralized, not its place in the series. 

Carl Lavigne via @Dave_Stubbs

However if the only linguistic bugaboo we encounter during the next couple of days is the proper way to refer to more than one last game of a seven game series, we’ll be doing just fine. My heart goes out to all those sports journalists charged with getting an insight into the players’ take on Wednesday’s deciding game. At a time when teams are incredibly protective of the state of affairs in their dressing-rooms, referring to players’ injuries simply as either upper or lower body, sparing all details, reporters are usually stuck with cliché answers to their questions.

If a specific incident from a past game is queried that gives the player a bit of grist, but God forbid the question is about the upcoming Game Seven! So to save you time, just assume that the answers to any upcoming Game Seven questions will come from this list:

• They are always tough at home
• There’s no tomorrow
• We have to play a full sixty minutes
• We have to leave it all out there
• Win or go home
• We have to stay within ourselves
• We have to bring the game to them
• We must play our game

A Letter To Canadian Hockey Fans

Dear Canadian Hockey Fans,

At about that very same time there was an audible exclamation from bars and living rooms across the rest of Canada "Oh shit, here we go again" as Montreal's 1993 run of playoff magic popped into minds from east to west.

At about 9:40 PM (EDT) last Tuesday the Montreal Canadiens completed a four-game sweep of the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round of the NHL playoffs. With just seconds remaining in a 3-3 game and overtime looming Max Pacioretty scored to send the Lighting packing. At about that very same time there was an audible exclamation from bars and living rooms across the rest of Canada; "Oh shit, here we go again" as Montreal's 1993 run of playoff magic popped into minds from east to west.

Don't get me wrong, one series - even a swept one - does not a Stanley Cup make. No one here, except maybe the mayor, is planning a championship parade. There is a long way to go, hopefully much more hockey to be played, but so far so good.

As the only Canadian team to make the post-season, Montreal has become the darling of hockey fans nationwide. Ha! I don't think so, but nor do I blame fans in other cities. I don't think I could pull for the Maple Leafs if they were the only club to make it. 

So for those of you in the rest of Canada, you have two choices, either maintain an ABM - Anyone But Montreal - approach, or embrace the Habs as your team. Should you choose the latter, here are some tips that may come in handy.

Being the sole Canadian representative isn't really noticeable here: the pressure to win the Stanley Cup is always cranked-up to 100% in Montreal. Once Jacques Villeneuve was asked if he gave a little something extra when racing on the circuit named for his late father. He simply said No, and went on to explain that if he could give a little extra in one race, he must be giving less than 100% in the others. Jacques clearly understands that no matter how popular the expression has become in sports journalism, it is impossible to give 110%!

So for those of you in the rest of Canada, you have two choices, either maintain an ABM - Anyone But Montreal - approach, or embrace the Habs as your team. Should you choose the latter, here are some tips that may come in handy.

Olé Olé

The Olé Olé song is sung at various points during games when things are going well. It isn't the Montreal version of the Na Na Hey Hey Good-Bye song that some fans sing when they feel their team has the game in the bag. So singing Olé Olé in the first period is not being cocky.

Forum Ghosts

The Montreal Forum was home to the Canadiens until 1996. Many cup championship teams called the Forum home, but the Habs have yet to win since leaving. Over the years the ghosts of champions past were rumoured to play a role in the team's success. (Just ask Don Cherry about a certain too many men on the ice penalty.)

The team's dearth of cups since moving has caused some to wonder if the ghosts got lost on the way to their new home. Eighteen years is a long time to go a dozen blocks or so, even if your are an apparition. But in fairness to the spirits of past champs, when they set out in 1996 they were looking for a place called the Molson Centre which is now called the BELL Centre. Confusing no doubt. Something else that may account for their tardiness are the many distractions along the way. You see aside from Stanley Cup hockey, as anyone who lives here can attest, Montreal is well known for its beautiful women, some of whom work in various establishments that call for them to wear very little if anything. Several of these infamous clubs are to be found between the Forum and the current home of the Habs. If those ghosts got lost and ended up in Stanley Street's Chez Parée, we may never see another Stanley Cup!  

Youppi!

Many long-time Habs fans yearn for the days before laser shows, blaring music and mascots were the norm in the NHL.  But Youppi! may have found his way into the hearts of even the most traditional fans because of his pedigree. Youppi! was hired by the Canadiens after he was unceremoniously cut free from the Expos when they were unceremoniously taken away from us. Somehow having the orange Muppet around adds a little something. The Expos-related banners that hang from the BELL Centre rafters alongside the Habs' are also a nice touch.    

 National Anthem

As Kate Smith, and her rousing rendition of God Bless America, became a tradition for the Philadelphia Flyers, Ginette Reno's O Canada is becoming one to the Canadiens. Playing O Canada is sometimes a bit dicey in Montreal, given the odd leather-lunged separatist's penchant to boo, but lately it seems there are a whole lot more folks singing than just Ginette! 

There you have it, now sit back and enjoy the ride either by hopping on the bandwagon, or looking forward to seeing the wheels fall off!

Cheers,

Deegan
 

NHL Playoffs: The Only True Sign of Spring

Today is the unofficial first day of spring. It has nothing to do with a groundhog, an equinox, the calendar or the weather. Spring begins when the NHL playoffs start. In fact Mother Nature has tried to set a hockey scene by depositing a dusting of snow on Montreal overnight. (A couple of days ago it was +24°C and a winter’s worth of snow and ice quickly melted. Today’s below freezing temperature of -7°C has turned that melt-water into a city-wide skating rink, all in keeping with that hockey concept.)

I just wish someone had informed Mother Nature that the first two games of the Canadiens-Lighting series are in Tampa Bay, a place that could evidently use a bit of snow to get fans in the hockey mood as the games are not yet sold out.

The Montreal Canadiens or Habs (short for Les Habitants) as they are often referred to locally are the sole Canadian team to make the post-season. Once an annual Rite of Spring in Montreal, playoff hockey – for that matter actually winning the Stanley Cup was an annual affair during some periods - is just a little bit rarer these days, with the Habs not the shoo-in they used to be.

A team that until 2000 had never gone seven years without winning the Cup, the Habs are now riding a 21-year drought, having last won in 1993, and are mired at 24 championships all-time. I’m pleased the marketing folks have trashed the “Drive for Twenty-Five” slogan that just reeked of jinx to me.

Will hockey fans across Canada rally around the Habs? Could be … maybe ... we'll see. A team with a winning tradition like Montreal’s is bound to have many loyal fans, many of whom have relocated both within Canada and farther afield. This Habs diaspora, with their red Montreal Canadiens jerseys, is evident in almost every building in which they play. I think it safe to say that these displaced fans will be backing the team, as they always have. But supporters of other Canadian-based teams may not be jumping on that Habs bandwagon so quickly. 

As much as they are loved in Montreal, the Habs are often loathed by fans of other Canadian teams. Some of whom have in the past gone so far as to say the NHL is biased towards the Habs. Why do they feel this way? To use the scientific term: sour grapes! 

So let the post-season begin and we’ll just have to see what happens. Hopefully the Habs will return from Florida with at least one win – two would be nice – and, please, a very large satchel of warm, sunny Tampa Bay weather!