Let's see, George Vezina, Jacques Plante, Roggie Vachon, Ken Dryden, Patrick Roy and Jaroslav Halak? To quote Lewis black "wha..wha...wha...wha....what?" Jaroslav Halak joins the pantheon of great Montreal Canadien goaltenders?
I keep hearing people say that the Washington Caps aren't built for the playoffs. They dominated the Habs. Their problem? Halak dominated them. There is not a snow balls chance Montreal gets past the Caps if Halak doesn't conjure up the spirits of Vezina, Plante, Vachon, the erudite Dryden and St. Patty.
Now, there are teams that are much better in the regular than the post season. Then you have the Maple Leafs who are better in the pre season than the regular season. The Caps and San Jose are 2 teams that under perform in the playoffs. The NBA? Dallas Mavericks and Phoenix Suns. The Caps, Sharks, Mavs and Suns were built to win and built to entertain. During a regual season who would rather spend your money on...the Mavs and Suns or the Jazz and Bucks? Truthfully, a full season of the Habs and Devils or the Caps and Sharks?
Oh, and by the way, if any team is constructed for the post season it's New Jersey. Let me look it up...there it is...gone in the first round!
It happens just about every year. A team with no business advancing past the first round gets some shocking blocking from their backstop and all of sudden it has a chance. Take it to the bank Pittsburg has been breaking down video of Halak 24/7 to find a weakness.
You can make the arguement that the Habbies were the better team against the Caps. But they were better because of one player. Compare rosters and it's not a contest. Compare goaltenders and that's a different bucket of pucks.
What the Canadiens tripped over...because they could have just as easily started Carey Price in game 5 when they were down 3 games to one...was guy who put on a show for the ages. Lucky guess? I think so. No one...out side of Halak's immediate family was expecting something on this level.
What the Habs found was a rage in the cage who took a page from the sage...Patrick Roy.
If only we could get our friend Freddie P. to wipe the blue from his eyes and recognize Halak's series for what it was!
Just read freddie. He's wrong...Washington didn't lose it. Halak won it.
How about this? Washington let Halak win it!
Fred, did you watch the same games I did. Halak came up with a one off. Patty Roy incarnate. He stole this.
I don't have a dog in the Leaf/Hab scrap. In fact, most of the time I envision the 2 old guys in the TD Canada Trust ads arguing about who got the hottest girl in high school - when there were only 4 other guys in the whole school. Eventually each of them would get their shot.
I came across a quote today that applies. It's in today's Daily Mail (UK) and is from Raffi Torres of Liverpool, whose fans face a dilemma this weekend: Beat Chelsea on the penultimate weekend tomorow and they'll seriously improve the chances of arch rivals Man(IO)U (their relationship makes TOR-MTL look like Kindergarten) winning the League for the 19th time, surpassing their own side's 18 times. Here's what he says:
'At all clubs, the fans really hate their rivals and keep an eye on their results. But one of the problems we always had at Atletico was that the fans were too focused on Real Madrid; that was symbolic of our bad times.
'When you're not achieving anything, you focus on your rivals and hope they lose. But you reach the point where you think it's time we looked at our results and left Real Madrid alone.
'If your fans want you to lose, it's a sign that your team has nothing to play for. And when that dawns on you, it hurts.'
One player made the difference??? Yeh, that player was the one and only Puck Hog Ovechkin.