In 100th Season, Montreal’s Playoff Run Ends

The playoffs are over for the Montreal Canadiens who are celebrating their 100th anniversary season this year.  Sadly, they were swept by long-time rivals, the Boston Bruins, in an humiliating 4-1 elimination.  At least the fans didn’t embarrass themselves this time by booing the American national anthem.

It looks even worse when you consider the combined scores from the series – Boston outscored the Habs 17-6.  To add even more insult to injury, Michael Ryder, who was dealt away by Montreal, registered a hat trick in the victory for Boston.

Andrei Kostitsyn was the only player to score for the Habs after receiving a pass from captain, Saku Koivu, just 39 seconds into the game.

Montreal’s fans might have been respectful during the anthems but they didn’t hold back the booing when it came to their team.  They let goaltender, Carey Price, know exactly how they felt about his performance during the series and they even pretended to cheer when he stopped a dump-in from the red line by Mark Recchi.  Mirroring the actions of the legendary Patrick Roy (who demanded the team trade him in 1995-1996), Price raised his arms in reaction to the fans.

It has been a tough season for the Canadiens.  They’ve been plagued with injuries, coach Guy Carbonneau, they are rumored to be up for sale and then there’s been the pressure of this being their centennial celebration.  I’m not making excuses but it is a lot for a team.

Now that it’s all over, I can really express my disgust with some of the choices made by the club.  First of all, there’s NO WAY they should have fired Guy Carbonneau.  So stupid.  Secondly, replacing him with Bob Gainey was just lame.  Why would you do that so close to the end of the season?  Third (and it’s a big third), why the hell did they leave Price between the pipes?  It was clear that the guy was flaking out, why not give Jaroslav Halak a chance?  Look at the success of Jonas Hiller (ANA) and Simeon Varlamov (WSH)!

Well, at least Montreal can say that they lost to a great team with an excellent record this year.  Good luck to Boston in the next round (and to Montreal, who clearly needs to make some changes during the off-season).

images: TSN