There's a big Quebec French connection in Tampa Bay, including the coach and two of its biggest stars.
But a Tampa Bay/Canucks would have been disastrous for the league with interest in the States in the toilet.
Canadian versus American,
West coast versus East coast
Yuppie versus blue collar,
A match that's got something for every fan!
Of course we wanted our Canadiens to do well, but no realistic Montreal hockey fan could have reasonably believed that the Canadiens had the goods to carry them to the finals. The loss of Markov, Pacioretty and Georges due to injury was too much of a handicap.
That being said Canadiens seem to have a bright future. After watching the entire playoffs so far, I remain convinced that Carey Price is the most valuable goaltender in the NHL. Not one goalie looked as sharp as him and all had serious lapses and terrible giveaway goals, especially Luongo and Thomas who ironically face off against each other for the cup.
Given their druthers, I bet both coach Claude Julien and Alain Vigneault would rather have Price in nets over what they've got.
Now that Tamps Bay is out of the way, there is no excuse for Quebeckers not to root for Van City.
As for the Quebec connection, there's four Montrealers on the Canucks team, Alexandre Bolduc , Maxim Lapierre, Alexandre Burrows and even one Anglo-Montrealer in the bunch Roberto Luongo!
I don't think there's another NHL team with four Montrealers!
Can it be that all of Canada is behind the Canucks?
YES!!!
YES!!!
YES!!!
