How one team captured an entire city during a magical playoff run
As the Blackhawks and Flyers prepare themselves for what is looking like a very promising Stanley Cup final, Montreal fans are left to wonder what could have been.
For the first time in over a month, things have returned to normal in Montreal. The front of our buses no longer say “Go Habs Go”, the flags on all the cars have been put away, and all of the “Ole Ole” chants have been silenced. No longer will St. Catherine Street be turned into hockey’s version of Mardi Gras, our stop signs will no longer read “Halak”, and Jacques Martin will now have to put away his cliché post-game quotes until next season.
For a month, living in Montreal was electrifying. No matter where you went, your eyes would be blinded by the “blue, blanc et rouge”. The chant “Go Habs Go” brought thousands together every second night. When the team played, everything else got put aside. The city was alive.
As Habs fans, we usually tend to complain about the fact that we haven’t won it all since 1993. In a city of over two million people, everyone considers themselves a General Manager, Head Coach, referee and a 3rd line centre. We’ve driven great players out of town (Patrick Roy), kept all-stars from ever signing here in the first place (Daniel Briere and Teemu Selanne), and watched players who we felt were mediocre-at-best become star players on other teams (Guillome Latendresse, Mike Ribeiro, and Mark Streit). We’ve been our own worst enemies over the years, but something felt different this playoff run. For the first time that I can remember, people trusted what our coach was doing, and we became more fans than critics. We were cheering, and not pointing fingers. We won as a city, and lost as a city. We didn’t have unrealistic, sky-high expectations; we just wanted to be part of the fun.
I was at PJ’s, a well-known Montreal sports bar, the night we clinched a playoff spot. A disgusting overtime loss against the Maple Leafs gave us the point we needed to clinch the eighth and final playoff spot and a date with the herculean Washington Capitals. On paper, they were better in every aspect of the game. Their top line has arguably two of the top four best players in the NHL in Backstrom and Ovechkin. They had just won the President’s Trophy for being the best team during the regular season. Most predicted a four game sweep, and the others predicted the Capitals winning by such a large margin during games 1,2 and 3, that the Habs wouldn’t even show up for game 4.
Then reality set in. Down 3-1 in the series, and a sure bet to lose game 5 in Washington, we somehow won. Back in Montreal, Jaroslav Halak stole game 6 and our hearts with a 53-save performance, sending the series back to Washington for a deciding game 7. In a game in which no one in the city would be mad to lose, Halak stole the show again, delivering a 2-1 victory.
With no time to celebrate, a scheduling gaffe by NBC, who believed they’d be getting Crosby-Ovechkin for their Sunday afternoon game, forced the Habs to play only 36 hours later against the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins, a team who many considered even better than the Capitals. Once again, the experts weighed in their thoughts and opinions, “Pens in 5”, “Crosby and Malkin are going to be too much for the Habs to handle”. In February, Crosby was our hero, the golden boy. Now, he became public enemy number one. The more he whined, the more we hated him. Once again we were against the ropes, being outplayed in all of the games, down 3-2 in the series. Jaroslav Halak and Mike Cammalleri did it again. We squeaked out a game 6 victory, and as part of a sellout crowd at the Bell Centre for game seven, 21,273 of us were watching the Jumbotron as the Habs blew the Penguins out of their own building to send us to our first conference finals since that magical 1993 year. This was the happiest I’ve ever seen the city. In a month’s span we knocked out the best team in the NHL, the defending Cup champions and the two best players in the league in the process. The pumpkin-turned-chariot was our bandwagon, and the Cinderella Canadiens were taking the whole city somewhere we never could have imagined a few weeks before.
Unfortunately, the clock struck midnight in that Flyers series. To be honest, we matched up a lot better against the Pens and the Capitals. The Flyers were having an underdog story of their own, and we couldn’t come close to matching their size, nor their intensity. However, even as we were being outplayed every game, the Montreal faithful watched, and went down with the ship. We all watched up until the last whistle of that series, very well aware that despite our loss, we were all part of something very special this spring.
As in every playoff season, this one had special memories that no one will be able to forget. There are certain moments that need to be mentioned before this tribute can be concluded. So for all you Habs fans, here are my favorite moments of our playoff run.
-Jaroslav Halak’s 53 save performance in game 6 vs. Washington.
-Bob Cole’s call of “Montreal has a new Mayor!!!” after Halak received the first star of that game 6, while 21,273 bowed to him and chanted “we are not worthy”.
-Mike Cammalleri leading the playoffs in goals and Brian Gionta for showing up every night.
-Carey Price for finally showing some maturity
-Our lovable mascot Youppi, being called “Louppi” 5 times in an interview with Don Cherry.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oyis-O573RM&playnext_from=TL&videos=YPAueO-W48w (tune into 1:45)
-Our bromance with rookie P.K Subban
-”Fix You” being blared over the Bell Centre speakers in what has to be one of the best team entrances in sports.
Those among other moments stood out these playoffs. The past month brought the city of Montreal more together than it’s been in a while. All issues and disputes were put aside for one common interest: Canadien playoff hockey. Despite the loss, and a lack of a Stanley Cup, here in Montreal, “history was made”.
