It’s that time of year again, with less than 25 games left in the regular season, I keep staring at the standings, cross-referencing the schedules, mentally juggling the playoff spots. Who do we play? Who do they play? In my more obsessive compulsive I start to try and see trends, how we performed against this team in the past, how they performed down the stretch in previous years. Who chokes? Who’s clutch?
By we I mean the Montreal Canadiens, by they I mean 29 other teams, more specifically the 14 other teams in the Eastern Conference.
Right before the All-Star break the Habs stomped one of the best teams in the league (Detroit) 7-2. I said to myself that it was a diamond in the rough, maybe a brief preview of what our team was capable of. A few changes, maybe Tinordi coming up and taking Hal Gill’s spot as the big D-man, another creative and talented forward in the form of Gallagher, a (dare I say it) healthy Markov. The possibility of one of the best blue lines in the game and 3 lines of offensive threat that could all be creative and keep the opposition on their heels.
To be sure, I was imagining this clicking in the 2012-2013 campaign, not a week later. Last week I was spending my time looking at the top draft prospects, dreaming of Yakupov, willing to settle on one of those big centers that are looking to go in the top 6 (Galchenyuk or Grigorkenko). Finishing in the bottom 5 seemed almost to be a foregone conclusion.
Then we went 4 for 4, posting 2 shutouts and scoring 15 goals while only allowing 4. 3 against teams ahead of us in the standings, 1 against a team nipping out our heels. Suddenly, even though it’s a long shot, the postseason seems like a possibility, however remote. Then we lost to the Hurricanes, and my hope faded a little, then we went toe-to-toe with the Big Bad Bruins in a tilt that could’ve gone either way.
As a fan I had mentally checked out, I was more interested in following my almost equally beloved Blackhawks than I was in watching the catastrophic woes of my home town Habbies. Now I don’t know what to think. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
