Round 2, Game 1: Different Superstar, Same Lame Excuses
So who do I chose, been cheering for both since high school. See?
So yes, we’re in the 2nd round. Too bad you only get a day to sober up.
Because Montreal was the last to finish the 1st round, they only get a day’s rest before trekking off to Pittsburgh for game one. So Jaroslav Halak gets another week of stopping 40+ shots again and again.
and again.
The Montreal Pittsburgh series brings me at a crossroads in these playoffs as normally when Montreal gets eliminated, I would rely on Pittsburgh to pick up my playoff pieces. And here they are playing each other.
This is a tough decision, how does a girl choose? Do I go with what feels right or what feels good. Pittsburgh feels right because not only they’re the defending Stanley Cup champions, they have strength in scoring, depth in defense and on paper they make sense.
Montreal feels good right now after heroics between the nets and penalty kill were able to destroy the top ranked team in the NHL. Everyone loves a good underdog story.
However beating a top rank team twice doesn’t happen in one playoff run. Or can it?
Game one: at the last minute ended up in the most sketchy of bars, Vol de Nuit, on Prince Arthur and St.Laurent. The drinks are cheap and would end up feeling cheap as the clientele recognizes me from a few hours earlier from the day job nearby. Everything that night felt cheap, not because of my surroundings but mainly it describes best how the Canadiens played game one. Cheap and sketchy.
What a difference a change in series can make. There was hope the confidence from beating Washington would last. It did, for about 11 minutes.
Already you can feel the momentum in the early parts of the period, both Montreal and Pittsburgh all over the ice. Montreal comes out early as PK Subban scores his first career playoff goal. Got to love this guy who will be the future leading defenseman.
Unfortunately, we lose our present leading defenseman as Andrei Markov gets hit by Matt Cooke, the newest NHL villain in the last while, willing to knock everyone out for good (talk to the Boston Bruins who are out for blood for a match up in the Conference final after what Cooke did to Marc Savard).
Stubban did us a favor also, knocking Jordan Staal out. However, Pittsburgh can continue on without him or anyone. Mainly it was the supporting staff scoring while Sid the Kid would either set them up or knock someone down. It makes it hard to hate him after raising our glasses in praise for his overtime goal a few months ago at the Olympics.
Without Markov, the defense lacks leadership and direction. Was wondering what ever happened to Roman Hamrlik, I see him on the ice but what does he do exactly?
Beats the Hell out of me.
The rest of the guys are quite young, hoping Hal Gill can take it up a notch as he was on the Penguin squad last year and got a taste of the Stanley Cup. Let’s hope also Spacek recovers from his ear infection. Being down two experienced defensemen isn’t helping the cause.
You would think that after riding the momentum of beating the #1 team in the league, Montreal would make this a series. Instead, it felt cheap like the bar I’m sitting in. It felt like we didn’t belong as Pittsburgh destroyed our penalty kill with 3 power play goals. What’s the excuse, best penalty kill from last series?
We were outshooting, outdoing. The way Andrei Kostitsyn was skating, he could break out from his slump but gives away the puck and there goes Pittsburgh’s fourth goal.
This is getting too much, too many mistakes, Scott Gomez taking too many penalties. The Canadiens were getting frustrated, as well as myself.
Halak looked tired and vulnerable but in the minds of many, especially my friend who took a job where he campaigns and the hours can run up to 60 hours a week, Halak is being weak. Carey Price took the 3rd period and for once looked stellar.
I’ll be honest, these guys played like they didn’t deserve to be there. All I’ve written here are excuses, nothing but. So what?
Yes, Pittsburgh is an amazing team. I followed their run last year. Sidney Crosby has proven himself and has a supporting cast of young stars who are ready set go. But remember, so did Washington.
Hell, we even made Marc Andre Fleury look good despite a sub par first round against Ottawa. If we can make Fleury look good then we have a problem.
When I got into watching games, I read the history and what the Canadiens are capable of when you put together a group of guys with heart and talent. In the new NHL it’s not the case. Because of mediocrity and wheeling and dealing, Pittsburgh was able to build a team out of draft picks and trades and assemble the best team since the Edmonton Oilers of the 1980s.
We had a solid squad from 2008 where we finished 3rd in the league and we squandered it with a game 7 Boston scare and a Flyers sweep. That team no longer exists and now here we are again, this time no one thought we had a chance until this week. I was very close to actually believing that hey, the Montreal Canadiens are worth watching.
Pittsburgh is the Montreal team I wish for.
My head says Pittsburgh in six, but my heart longs for Montreal in seven. There has to have been a reason they could beat Washington. Sidney Crosby is no different than Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin is almost Ovechkin (except for the part where he chokes). Montreal, give me a good reason why I should keep cheering for the underdog.
I’ve had my share of disappointments but I wish to believe that this could be different. Don’t want to see and hear excuses, the proof was in the last series that we can compete with the elite. If you’re not going to win the series, make it look like you can actually win a game.
Halak or Price, both are better than Fleury. They’re also a man down, we can get another from Hamilton. The rest who haven’t taken a shot in ages, why don’t you compensate in shutting down Pittsburgh’s scoring chances. I want to see a series.
Cause no one likes feeling cheap after feeling confident for once.
