Habs 2, Hawks 1 (OT): X marks the spot

I picked an awesome game to buy tickets for.

Wow. Absolutely WOW.

It was a playoff game without being a playoff game but with playoff implications on the line. For the Habs, two points would clinch it. For the Hawks, a point or two would just help them breathe a bit and kill Calgary's playoff hopes. (Should have tanked when you had the chance, Lames).

And since I'm kind of a Hawks fan my ideal game would have been a 3-point game with the Habs winning in OT. Going 1-1 after 60 minutes I turned to my brother and said "PK's got it!" I wonder if Marty Turco had the same bet?

Habs were unreal. Price was getting an ovation with every crazy game-saving save. Even Cammy didn't look hurt. Would have had a hat trick if Crawford hadn't been in a completely crazy zone. Then Toews does something really stupid in OT and takes out PK's skates. Yes it was a penalty, Coach Q you whiny twerp. Get over it. (Hawks got away with way more all game, including TWO very terrible calls on Hamr and Kostitsyn for glorious dives your boys took). OT penalty unit was perfect: Cammy, Kostitsyn, Wiz, and PK. Perfect because Cammy actually WINS faceoffs and we all know about the Wiz/PK pairing. Perfect pass by Andrei. PK drills it. PK victory skates right to Carey who drills him.


I've never ever seen these guys victory hug the way they did. It was The Moment. You had to be there to really understand. And if you felt a tremor, it was the crowd cheering concrete rattling cheers of "GO HABS GO!" and "PK! PK! PK!" and "CAREY! CAREY! CAREY!". Habs are in the playoffs 'cause of Kid Clutch. Both of them. Carey's got a new record of games played and has won more games in a season than Patrick Roy ever did. Also has the most wins since Dryden back in the 70s and well, let's just say this rendition of the Habs isn't exactly similar eh. PK's got one more goal to tie Guy Lapointe's rookie season. Not bad company.

If this team had Markov... If this team had a healthy full lineup for more than one game... If Patches can come back soon...

And the Leaf was eliminated. So long, fuckers.

Hey, it's my blog and I'll be as eloquent as I want. Just look at TSN to understand. They should paint the page black to signify their mourning, 'stie. There are only TWO Canadian teams in the playoffs this year: Habs and Canucks. But you'll really only read about the death of the Leaf's season.

We don't know what will happen in the Real season. But if the Habs play like this, I would hate to be the team facing them. This team with it's patched up defense, bandaged forwards, and awesome kids... You really don't know what they can do.

Playoffs of 1812: History might be made or we'll have fun trying

In which Les Canadiens will storm the city of Washington and (attempt) to burn the Capitals down.

The war will be fought in four theatres, twice in the Verizon Center and twice at the Bell Center. Depending on wins and losses there may be more. The citizenry, however, will be entertained regardless of the outcome for Captain Alexander Ovechkin always enjoys a good swing in Montreal, and Montreal keeper Carey Price (the sole known Native representative of this version's campaign as far as we know) absolutely adores fighting him. He currently holds the record of this season's campaign at 2-1-1 which is steller considering their arsenal and relentless assault compared to our own. And there will be no shootout to save them this time. Of course his participation depends on the actions of Brigadier Martin, who is known to be just that much of an asshole to not set out his noble big-game keeper on the flying eagles. The Capitals also remember one Sergei Kostitsyn, a hard nosed solider on the 3rd brigade, putting the most impossible goal on them last season in a regular campaign, however his participation also remains to be seen. HMCS Hal Gill will proudly patrol our waters should they attempt a powerplay down low and will desperately try to not score on his own net twice.

Today Les Canadiens and their fans took a day to salute Brigadier Tortorella for absolutely blowing his team's chances at taking Washington by sending out one Olli Jokinen in the shootout over Marian Gaborik. Such actions may haunt him for the rest of his days. To his credit he was later overheard as saying "I thought we had JUSSI Jokinen!"

A sense of euphoria has washed over the land cheering for both teams under the red, white and blue. It's Spring! And even though both sections lost on their way to the playoffs, springtime is a lovely time as each chase Lord Stanley. Only time will tell which side will enjoy an Era of Good Feelings. Regardless of the outcome, we will stand united with a heightened sense of national pride and solidarity.

On that note: I GOT PLAYOFF TICKETS! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Wednesday April 21st. It could very well be our last game of the season but I'm off the wall excited to see the Habs play the Caps regardless!

Oh hey, apparently the number of point differential between the Habs and the Caps is 33. C'mon Patrick, you gotta break the curse one of these days!

Habs 3, Leafs 4 (OT): Elusive point get, playoffs clinched, but I'm not amused...

That dude on the right. Yea, that's how it feels.

Indeed. The Habs clinched a playoff position while on a 3-game losing streak.

Flashback to Game 1 again. I know I did this in the previous post but I'll do it anyway. The Habs won that game 4-3 in OT with Josh Gorges following up on a rebound created by Mike Cammalleri. Price stole that game with 43 saves on 46 shots compared to the 22 saves on 24 shots by Vesa Toskala. Clearly the Habs could have beaten the Leafs in regulation that night in Toronto if they had swarmed Toskalol.

Flashforward to Game 82. The Habs lose the game 4-3 in OT with bridgetroll Dion Phaneuf surprising Halak with a wrister. Contrary to Game 1, in no way shape or form did Jaro match Price's stellar season opening performance like we hoped he would and Habs were bloody lucky they managed to get that 1 point they needed because of that. This time it was JS Giguere, making 34 saves on 37 shots, including a game saver on Cammy as he turned the Leafs D inside out only a few minutes prior to Phaneuf's goal. Jaro only faced 15 shots when it was tied up in the 2nd period and a poor decision on playing the puck allowed the Leafs to tie it up in the first place. He gave me zero confidence all night. He was deep in his net, looked nervous, pucks kept bouncing out of his glove (and he's had a glove side problem for the past 3 games now), and looked small. After Hanson tied it up in the 3rd with a shorthanded goal, CBC's Jeff Marek tweeted "If that was Price on the Hanson goal would he get a) pulled b) boo'd c) both?". All I can think of was "DO NOT WANT BRONZE MEDAL GAME 3RD PERIOD MELTDOWN".

If that was his Game 7 moment... Well, let's just say he's a good back up who had a lot of luck this year and now the cracks are showing.

The team did play ok. Defense still needs work. SERGEI NEEDS TO PLAY unless he's injured and not 100%. Just kept getting deflated all game. Need to work on 2-on-1s, keep your stick on the ice, tip-ins to wide open nets. They need to calm down, shoot more, want the puck more. Unlike Game 1 the powerplay did it's job once, and then gave up a shorthanded goal thanks to the slowfooted pylons on the blue line.

Game of the year and the Coach benches one of his best players for a career AHLer. Unbelievable. I know, I love Darche Vader as much as the next, but really, Sergei would have buried that.

Game of the year and the Coach puts Slippy on D. His shot can kill people, and he murdered Giguere's water battle with it, but please, keep him away from playing defence.

All comments aside, they're in. That elusive one point they searched for for weeks now...they finally got it. Let's remember this is a new team coupled with a new coach and the injuries, oh the injuries this team has had! In fact they only had a full healthy line up for like 2 games if that all year.

So we should be happy there's more hockey. Yes we could be facing the Devils...but there's also a possiblity, if the Flyers win tomorrow in regulation (and I won't hold my breath on that), we get the Capitals.

I would rather the Capitals. Frankly if I'm going to spend that kind of money on playoff tickets, I want to be entertained not bored out of my skull.

Yes, I'm being selfish. Hey, it's the LEAST I could ask for, being a loving fan who had to live through this season.

Lesson in Futility: The playoff tickets

8:30am
Had my alarm set to wake me up. The song on the radio was inspirational 70s rock.
9:00am
Ate breakfast and read the newspaper. Matzo with Nutella, a few strawberries, kosher cottage cheese.
9:15am
Got dressed and turned on the computer. Waited to hit the Habs' site for the link.
9:20am
Matzo does bad things to your "system"
9:30am
Link is up! Clicked the link and waited. Posted on twitter: "The bracelet system worked well for me when I got the Victory Pack tickets, let's see how this online method goes..."
10:00am
Tickets start selling. Still waiting... Posted on Twitter: "Waiting in a virtual waiting room isn't as fun as waiting in Windsor courtyard... There's no Youppi to high-five with." Began wondering with Tyler@NHLDigest what a team in Saskatchewan would be called. No clue if the room was working
10:30am
Lesson one - Online virtual waiting rooms: no idea where you stand or what's left.
10:45am
Posts on the Habs forum don't look promising. People getting techy. My feelings? Bored. Only sign of life in the VWR was the "Transferring data from..." thing.
10:50am
Got annoyed by dad who was standing in my doorway in his usual annoying way. Bugged me about my paintings and if I was going to take them to my new place. "Yes, but not now," I said. "Why not?" he snapped back. Grr!
11:00am
I was told people with packages (like me with the Victory Pack) got a special pin number to access the system but I got no such thing. This made me irate...
11:10am
It worked nicely for the Bulldogs game back in December... Feeling unhappy with the VWR.
11:30am
People start posting tickets for rediculous prices on Kijiji and Craigstlist. This makes me more irate. If you buy the tickets just to sell you are a douchebag (unless you suddenly realized you wouldn't be able to attend, but then you would probably offer it to friends or forum member fans first before heading there).
12:00am
Got hungry. Decided to eat lunch. Started heating up soup... Closed the page down. Bummed out...
12:30am
Kristin tells me to try the fan pack. SUCCESS! TICKETS GET!!! Thank you Kristin!!!
12:50am
Here's on happy Habs fan with two tickets to Game 3 (Home Game 1) in the Molson Ex Zone. And I get a brick (dad already bought one, but now I have one), and a CA sweater (which my brother just bought yesterday, but now I have one too). Going to be rocking the Section 313 Row A (seats 6 and 7). Brother owes me $192.70 now. Thanks again Kristin!
1:00am
Realized I forgot about my soup and found out I had boiled it into oblivion. No damage to the kitchen or stove. No one else is home so I have time to clean up the evidence, but...I GOT PLAYOFF TICKETS!

Dayenu! Habs 4 Booins 5 (OT)

How thankful must we be to God, the All-Present, for all the good He did for us.

Had He brought us out from Boston and not executed judgment against the Bruins,
DAYENU!
Had He executed judgment against the Bruins and not done justice to the likes of Lucic,
DAYENU!
Had He done justice to Lucic, and not slain our power play with Schneider and Weber,
DAYENU!
Had He slain our power play with Schneider and Weber and not given us an awakened 2nd line,
DAYENU!
Had He given us an awakened 2nd line and not divided the defensemen for D'Agostini,
DAYENU!
Had He divided the defensemen for D'Agostini and not given him two goals,
DAYENU!
Had He given D'Agostini two goals and not drowned a fantastic Price behind a horrible defense,
DAYENU!
Had He drowned a fantastic Price behind a horrible defense and not helped through a fiesty 40 minutes of back and forth play,
DAYENU!
Had He helped through a fiesty 40 minutes and not fed Kovy the puck,
DAYENU!
Had He fed Kovy the puck and not have Dandy take a delay of game when ahead,
DAYENU!
Had He have Dandy take a delay of game when ahead and not brought us to overtime,
DAYENU!
Had He brought us to overtime, and not given us the point we needed,
DAYENU!
Had He given us the point and not brought us into the playoffs,
DAYENU!
Had He brought us into the playoffs and not have to face such adversity this whole season,
DAYENU!

How much more so do we have to be thankful for the manifold and unbounded blessings of the All-Present God:

That he brought us out of Boston,
And executed judgment against the Bruins,
And did justice to Lucic,
And did not slay our power play with Schneider and Weber,
And gave us an awakened 2nd line,
And divided the defense for D'Agostini,
And gave him two goals,
And drowned a fantastic Price behind a horrible defense (fix it Bob),
And helped us through 40 fiesty minutes of back and forth play,
And fed Kovy the puck,
And gave Dandy a delay of game,
And brought us into overtime,
And gave us the point we needed,
And brought us to the playoffs
where the accumulation of hard work in the face of adversity finally pays off.

DA DAYENU! DA DAYENU! DA DAYENU! DAYENU DAYENU!

It's Habs Passover, and we're skating to the first round baby!