Its always a treat when the local team makes it past the first round of the playoffs, and who can deny that being among the top eight teams in the league is anything but a successful season. I certainly hope the Canadiens beat the Bruins and go on to the Conference final and perhaps farther, but whatever happens, I am satisfied, especially the fact that they are competing so robustly against the Bruins who perhaps thought they'd have a cakewalk through the Habs.
Whenever the Montreal Canadiens make the playoffs, I like to read the sports columns in the pages of the opposing team for a fresh point of view.
Whenever the Montreal Canadiens make the playoffs, I like to read the sports columns in the pages of the opposing team for a fresh point of view.
It's a special treat when that opposition is the Boston Bruins because the writers and fans have an obsessive belief that the Canadiens are divers and the beneficiaries of advantaged refereeing, a theme that has been the hallmark of Bruins lack of success over the Habs for decades. I think it goes back to the very best game that I ever rattended, way back in 1979, when the Canadiens faced off with the Bruins in a tense game seven, the series semi-final that would see the winner go on to challenge for the Stanley Cup.
You may not be familiar with that game, many of you weren't even born back then, but you can see the video evidence during Don Cherry's Coach's Corner opening highlight montage where he is standing on the bench shouting at the referee with arms spread out, mocking the referee over another Canadiens homer penalty call.
The Canadiens trailed the Bruins by 2 going into the third and after making the score 4-3, time was winding down when the Bruins were assessed a too-many men penalty, which led to a Guy Lafleur slap shot goal after which, the Bruins goalie, flopped to the ice in total exasperation, like a child making a snow angel. From there destiny was set with Yvan Lambert scoring half way through the first overtime to eliminate the Bruins and send the Canadiens on to meet the Rangers in the final.
I had a good view of the play and swear until today that Lambert kicked the puck into the net. Back then, there wasn't any video replay and but one referee on the ice, so mistakes like that were common. When I mentioned it to Lambert at a social occasion a couple of years later, that I thought he kicked the puck in, he flew into a rage and swore it was a good goal. Twenty years later, I kid you not, I met Lambert again in the Habs alumni lounge in the Bell Centre and he marched up to me to remind me that it was most certainly a good goal. Ha! Ha!
By the way, Lambert is a fantastic guy who used to work for the Habs until let go during a lockout, years ago. He is as entertaining a hockey character as you'd ever be lucky to meet and I can only wonder why he isn't making the rounds of French sports media.
At any rate, ever since then Don Cherry has been moaning that the Canadiens get away with murder, getting favourable treatment from the referees, especially in Montreal where according to him, referees are intimidated. And so Bruins fans take it as a given that in order to beat the Canadiens, you have to beat the refs as well.
That feeling is shared across the league and manifested itself quite recently with the asinine comment by Cherry's straight man, Don MacLean that the league shouldn't allow a French referee to work a playoff game in Montreal.
I know I've been talking about schadenfreude a lot lately, but what can I say, I'm that type of a guy.
As soon as the Bruins lost the game on Tuesday I headed over to the Bruins fan forum over at HF Boards to enjoy a little of their pain and recharge my batteries with a huge dose of the Bruins fans pissing and moaning.
Here's some of my favourite comments;
PREGAME COMMENTS
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| Bruins fans accuse Canadiens of whining...really??? |
-I am fully prepared for the real Embellishment City to rear their ugly heads. The Habs are going to be diving all over the place and the refs are going to be taking the cheese every time. We need to keep the legit penalties to a minimum, because you know the faux ones will be there for sure. The only semblance of a chance the Habs have to win this series, is by getting on the powerplay. 5 on 5 we absolutely eviscerate them.
-you have 21000 people yelling, i mean we are all human, that MUST rattle the best REFS once in a while!
-Good. I hope he sneezes in the room and the Norovirus runs through that crew of asshats like green corn through a goose.
-Home of that most disgusting of creatures...Le Hab. Unlike other beasts he has no way of camouflaging himself- you can see, hear & smell him from a great distance. But you must constantly be on your guard against him, because he will slash, cross check & trip you without the slightest provocation on your part. And then hide behind a ref when you decide retribution is in order while the crowd screams "Ole". Think of Le Hab as a weasel on skates because truly that is what he is.
-Can we find a ref in the league born and raised in Montreal to act this way when games are in Boston
-No, he has a track record and proven history of making calls against Boston that aren't there, not making calls for Boston that are there and waiving off good goals. Additionally, his stats show he is 63% more likely to make a call in favor of the home team, except when it comes to officiating games at the Garden.
-Damned Montreal series is destined to kill me.
-Death,taxes and the first penalty in Montreal.
-Please, please, please, shut these self-important Habs fans u
OPENING CEREMONIES COMMENTS
-Janet Reno is singing the Canadian National Anthem?
-Looking like John Candy cross dressing in Armed and Dangerous.
-Now all I can picture is Paula Dean in a Habs uniform shouting "beurre, y'all."
FIRST PERIOD
-And now Chara injured by a slash the refs ignored. Pretty clear these refs are either going to let a lot to or let a lot to for the Canadiens.-game already sucks
-Can you point me to the throw up emoji???
-Waiting for a habs pp to be called. You know its coming.
-Give me a break what a ****ing lucky re direct to Plekanec wide open...Had to be the turtleneck wearer.
-Well the b's will just have to come from behind ...as usual
-We dominate they score. Typical. I hate these games. Shut those idiots up boys. Turn it on!
-Habs playing dirty = right into Boston's hands-I hate that disgusting piece of ****. (Subban) Rewarded for his dirty play.
-I wish someone would take PK out. But that ***** will just dive and whine not fight back, he has no spine.
-Down 2-0, in the 1st, IN MTL! Yes I'm scared right now!
SECOND PERIOD
-Why do the bruins always suck against montreal. I don't care that we dominated them at the beginning. All that matters is the scoreboard
-One bad period.Relax.This team is going to come back in this game .book it.
-Wow, shocking. When's the last time we got a gift goal like that against the Habs?
-And now the game is over
This is really frustrating. Are the habs really even that good?
-Dale frigging Weise Tuukka????
-Tuukka has just got to make a ****ing. Save. Dale Weisse. Jesus Christ.
THIRD PERIOD
-what bull **** with the no calls. net off on purpose, boarding, interfereance....bull **** we should have had at least one PP in the 3rd.
-BIG UPS TO THE REFS FOR SWALLOWING THAT WHISTLE.-Lets face it. Bruins piss in their pants at the site of the Canadiens. Its not flat, its choke.-Rask sucked, refs were typical montreal officials in the final minute.-What happens when 40 goal score Pacioretty decides to show up or the Bruins killer Vanek wakes up-Boston should call up Malcom Subban for game 4. It would not only throw PK off but I'm not sure Dale Weise would have enough time to figure him out-Habs are a bunch of scrubs, hurts to lose to them.-I gotta step away from the screen. too shook- Let's not make calls that should be made, because the home crowd might get mad.
-This game gonna bother me for a while.Ha Ha!!! Quite enjoyed that....
At any rate, reading a couple of online stories in the Boston press I was totally surprised at the elevated level of writing, considering it's just sports.
The two writers below can write rings around any of the palookas in the sports press corps in Montreal.
The ill-advised roughing debunked Harry Sinden’s oft-repeated claim that the only things certain in life are death, taxes, and the Canadiens getting the benefit of the first penalty at the Forum. Subban was banished for two minutes and the Bruins went to work on a power play that yielded nothing."Thinking back to that 1979 playoff run, I'm reminded that I invited my uncle, my mother's brother who was in Montreal visiting us from the old country, to his first hockey game ever. Really his first game ever.
Amalie Benjamin-Boston Globe
Extensive personal research has determined that Montreal is a coffee town. Before Game 4, it would serve the Bruins well to take advantage of this resource.
On Tuesday night, for the second straight game, the Bruins staggered on full decaf. This time, unlike in their 5-3 Game 2 rally, the Bruins couldn’t overcome a drowsy start in their 4-2 loss. Fluto Shinzawa-Boston Globe
That night the Canadiens won the Stanley cup against the Rangers. Amazing...
By the way, I attended the Habs 4-2 Tuesday night victory over the Bruins with my wife who could not stand the tense situation in the final minutes and buried her eyes in her purse until it was over.
She warned me that if the game went into overtime, we were going home.
Readers, do you think I'da gone home?
We're married 40 years, I'da gone home.....
