Habs Road Trip Turning Magical in Florida - Habs 2, Bolts 1 (OT)

All those who thought the Habs would win 5 of the first 6 on the road trip from hell raise your hand. Liar. No way you thought that. You would have been thrilled with .500 on this thing. Now with one left, there is a chance for 12 points out of 14. That's ridiculous. But the Habs went into the friendly confines of Florida last night and came out with a full value OT win. Well, full value for 40 minutes at least. This was a game in 3 acts, like any good Disney movie.

The First Act where the heroes work hard yet are not necessarily rewarded for their efforts

I do not recall 40 minutes all season where the Habs played that consistently well. What was beautiful was all four lines seemed to be generating pressure, and keeping the puck in the offensive zone. If anything, our top line was the worst of the four. GMC started to show why we could have a true second scoring line, and it paid off with the only goal. I recall the 3rd line working their asses off as usual and generating several scoring chances, and even noticed Dagger for good things not bad. I recall thinking to myself that Mad Max, Little Tits and The Urologist is a lot of fucking offensive talent for a fourth line, and if they could in any way start to use that talent, this could be a scary team. Then I remembered we're talking about Mad Max and Little Tits here, and snapped out of it.

Credit the defence as a group as well in Act One. Hamr's return seemed to solidify everyone. Solid D, good job clearing the puck out of the zone, and generally kept control. If this is our D every night, we should be happy.

Alas, for all our heroes' 28 shots through 2, all the time in the offensive zone, all the chances, all the control of play, it was only 1-0.

The Second Act where the heroes face massive adversity, yet manage to survive the difficult obstacles because you know they are going to pull it out in the end

Well, blech for that 3rd period. Sitting back on the one goal lead, not getting a shot for half the period, just blech. Not blech? One Franchise Saviour. Talk about keeping us in it. No chance at all on the one that went in, he made save after key save. That continued into Act 3.

The Final Act where the heroes are led by the true leaders who rise up to conquer their demons, and win the day

On to OT, where after a game-saver or two from the Saviour Who Has Had Enough of this Talk About Jaro as the Number One Goalie Thank You Very Much, our leaders rise up after being relatively quiet. Squid picks up a loose puck, punches it out to Pleks, Squid skates like a madman to catch up and be the decoy as Pleks blasts the game winner. Cue the raised arms, cue our heroes group hug, and cue the closing credits.

The Inevitable Sequel that may or may not be a disappointment

Habs close out the road trip at 5 PM tonight in Sunshine.