Wednesday, April 16, 2008

13 to go...1 to bury the Broons


I know Carey Price is a devout Christian and would probably find all of this blasphemous..but fuck it, I'm going to hell anyway: Praise Carey! He's MY saviour.

TFS(tm) lived up to the hype last night and carried the Habs to a 1-0 victory in Boston. Are the Bruins the most powerful offensive force in the NHL? Hardly. But Mr. Price stood tall all night long, took some risks that paid off (see Sturm, Marco) and as usual never looked like he broke a sweat. His puckhandling skills around the net consistently kept the Broons from setting up a cycle down low, and he's big enough that he makes the saves in traffic. As a result, he's the first rookie goalie to earn a playoff shutout since, you guessed it, St. Patrick in 1986. Team defence kept the Bruins from having any truly great scoring chances, except while shorthanded in the first. The third went by relatively quickly considering we were clinging to a one-goal lead, thanks to my new found devotion to and faith in TFS(tm) .

Now I'm going to do something that makes me feel icky: Breezer is playing well. Hell, he's been the only defencemen that has made a solid outlet pass, and he scored on an absolute bullet of a shot - everyone watching the game down at the Rose & Crown (shout out to Bryan and Fezworth!) thought the puck had gone over the glass, such was our collective disbelief that Breezer could play the role of offensive hero - or indeed anything other than pylon.

While I'm playing 'bizarro' FHF today, let me also praise Carbo for doing the obvious and moving Swiss Mister - who's new nickname could have been 'asphalt' for the number of times he's been run over in the series thus far - to forward and bringing back big, bad Rhino (although even Rhino looks like a child next to Count Chocula...that freak.) I didn't miss Milk Carton, did you?

Unfortunately the Dance a dix line continued to do a whole lot of nothing (except for Big Tits crashing the net on the PP leading to Breezer's goal), ditto Little Tits and Higgins. Where or where art thou, Saku?? The complete disappearance of our offense (save for the SlowGreekBang line, who once again was the Habs' best) is a huge fucking worry, and Turtleplek & co. did little to dispel the "little girl" comparisons. It's Tiny Tim, people!! Get some shots on net.

Thursday night is Bruins Elimination Game #1 - and the Habs better bury them then, otherwise Julien's troops may get some ideas about making amends for thier 2004 debacle. Too bad for them that we have TFS in nets, not Raayyyycroft. And if he plays like he did last night, it'll be lights out in Beantown. Jinx.

Bring on Ole!

15 comments:

Young HF29 said...

I did miss Milk Carton. Both LG and I on the thread last night agreed he got the shaft. Carbo hates him. He's actually been one of the players who worked hard

such was our collective disbelief that Breezer could play the role of offensive hero

i still don't believe it. what a shot. and with an old-school wooden stick too! jebus himself must have guided it

Noda said...

From habs inside out:

It was Brisebois's third postseason point this year, tying him for the team lead with Bryan Smolinski and Tom Kostopoulos.

*GASP*

kovalev and pleks are officially killing my playoff pool now.

Anonymous said...

Love Steit on Forward, point on PP. Seems to work best.

Ryder should be back, he's the 'out of no where' guy. Whether or not he's actually producing, he draws the D. And sometimes he does come out of nowhere. Remember 0-5 Habs vs Rangers. Just review that.

Higgy is a classy guy and he'll start doing something soon. I've expressed my love for Captain K before, there's no need to again. Ok, fine, I just want to see him on the ice. That's it. In Montreal. Take the opening faceoff and sit on the bench thereafter. I need that smile. If Cap K means that much to me, imagine what he means to the boys on the team.

I believe that the Habs aren't as bad as they've shown. They just tend to play to the level of their opposition instead of to their potential. That's why they scored two quick ones in game 1, but have been struggling ever since. This is an A team playing at a B- level because that'll get them into a University, although not the best one. This crap will get them by the Broons, but there's no scholarship available.

After an OT loss, OT win and 1-0 loss, the Beans probably believe as much as they can that they can win. A quick goal on Thurs by the good guys will take care of that. If not, look out.

-orangeman

Anonymous said...

kovalev and pleks are officially killing my playoff pool now.

Me too.It's bullshit.

The team may scrape by the B's with this half-ass playing but I don't think they'll get away with it in the next round.

Anonymous said...

The team may scrape by the B's with this half-ass playing but I don't think they'll get away with it in the next round.

They definitely won't with this effort. Luckily the Broons don't have any offensive weapons or the Habs would be on the brink instead.

It was crazy to see how many Habs fans were in the building last night though but what's with the Oles in a 1-0 game?

themindset said...

I think the "Ole" song is misunderstood. It's not a song that's necessarily sung when winning, it's just a song... you know, that people sing when they're at a game (usually soccer, in fact) and they're having a good time.

Jaybird said...

I feel that Kovalev and possibly Plekanec will start producing big time eventually (they have to if we expect anything). I think people dogging them aren't giving Boston's shutdown line enough credit. Julien has been doing a great job orchestrating a total clog in our favourite passing lanes. Kovalev is frustrated and not relaxed. I will be happy when this series is over and we play a team like Philly that haven't played us eight times this year, are probably slower than Boston and more importantly we have dominated lately (which was also true for Boston but Stevens is not the coach Julien is). Also Thomas has played really well.

fezworth said...

@themindset: THANK YOU! I have been saying this ad nauseum for a long time. It does NOT invoke negative karma to sing the Olé song. We're just not used to hearing it, because fans in Montreal in the past few years haven't been enjoying themselves until the last 2 minutes of a blowout game.

Well played.

fezworth said...

ad nauseum -> a long time... redundant, I know, I know

Unknown said...

in the dictionary under redundant is says "see redundant"


but i agree. i equate ole with a chant of "go team go" just with more flair. nobody says you can't cheer on your team in the 1st. so why not sing ole in the first.

Young HF29 said...

im in total agreement that the Olé song is a "let's go" cheer and can be sung at any time

and fez "ad nauseum" doesn't necessarily mean over a long time. ad nauseum just could be lot of repetition within a short period of time. so you'r ok

@jaybird - good for you, recognizing that the B's shut down line have done a decent job. but still, the line seems tentative

moeman said...

I love how the 'Olé' song bugs the shit out of bob cole. Probably makes him feel like putting his pants back on.

Go Habs, finish this series tomorrow, s'il vous plait et merci.

Bryan Driscoll said...

what what!

big ups for the shout out!

Anonymous said...

So nobody mentions the big pink elephant at the dinner table? Sens just got sweeped and eliminated folks!

Bryan Driscoll said...

fuck em... means we don't have to face em