Priceless

Soak it in, Bruins fans. We don't get this feeling very often.

It might be the post-sweep euphoria speaking, but I'm going to lay it out there: no matter what happens, no matter the disappointments and travails we'll face in the second round (and beyond?), this season is a total, unmitigated success. We're playing with house money now. We could lose the next four games eleventy-billion to nothing, and I will go into the summer with a huge, cat-ate-the-canary, shit-eating grin on my face.

Before we go any further, into the part of the season when hearts really get broken, let's take a week and appreciate the sheer awesomeness of this team. Tim Thomas is our goalie. Milan Lucic pwns the Habs every game. Claude Julien might well be the smartest coach in the league today. Zdeno Chara will be truly terrifying to behold after 10 more days of playoff beard. Even Michael "Overpaid Bum" Ryder has become a clutch-scoring hero. Teams like this come along once in a generation... once in five generations if you're the Rangers.

There's a sea of commentary to wade through this morning, but here's the best I've seen so far:

• Big Bad Bruins will bring a tear to your eye. But you'll be glad you read it.
• Silver Seven Sens points out the startling similarities between the '09 Habs and the '08 Sens.
• Pension Plan Puppets rolls out the Antropomorphic Mocking Numerals. Another bit of dirt on the Habs' grave.
• KPD of boston.com must've really savored the chance to write this article.

Let's Get It On.

Admit it: you were hoping this would happen.

A year ago, when the Bruins fell one game short of a miracle...

Back in November, when they broke an interminable regular-season losing streak...

When Blake Wheeler spoiled Patrick Roy Night...

When Lucic/Komisarek got personal, and then got even MORE personal...

Last week, when the Habs used a charity point to open the back door....

... you were hoping this would happen. Because it's the only right ending for this saga. Scores need to be settled. Legends need to be written. And at the end, a lot of hearts are going to be broken.

Whether either fanbase admits it or not, both were pumped about this series before it was even official. The Habs have one last shot at redemption after one of the most trying seasons in their history. The Bruins have a shot at redemption for the past 3 playoff seasons. Both teams will face an offseason of being raked through the coals if they fail.

With the Game 1 still half a week in the making, the opening salvos are already being fired.

• It started some time after the last game, when I questioned the character of a Canadiens franchise that has made a habit of bending the rules to try and steal victories.


• A certain Habs blogger took the criticism to heart, and responded by calling Bruins fans "cocky". Of course, he had spent the previous week launching no fewer than five taunts in the Bruins' direction. It involved monkeys and toilet paper. Winters are long in Montreal.


• Laughably, what began as a bunch of trash-talking at Four Habs Fans quickly degenerated into Habs fans speculating that either Jacques Lemaire, Denis Savard or Patrick Roy will be their next coach.


• That's when it started in earnest over at Habs Inside Out. The chest-thumping sounds a little too loud from a fanbase clearly insecure in its identity and not entirely confident about their prospects in this series.


• Stanley Cup of Chowder jumps into the fray with a gentle tweak of Quebec stereotypes, followed by some bad advice about staying "classy". I disagree; we should definitely burn some cop cars if we manage to dispatch of the Habs in 7 games or fewer.


• In a well-written and eerily convincing farce, All Habs says that Price will have to be "consistently very good" in order to win this series. For the first time ever, a Google search of the phrase "Carey Price" and the word "consistent" will now return a result.

We wanted it, now we've got it. Thursday can't come fast enough.

Are the Habs starting to crack?

Is this the face of an innocent man?

Last year, it was the dive. This year, it's the dirty hit.

We knew something was different about this version of the Montreal Canadiens. At first, it seemed a charming kind of ineptitude, such that the much-hyped centennial season has become an extended comedy of errors.

But now it appears that the league's most narcissistic franchise has taken a darker turn.

A club that once prided itself for playing quick, clean, beautiful hockey has now become a stepchild to the Flyers and Ducks. Perhaps the past 15 years have weighed too heavily on the franchise, as they have endured a relative eternity of futility while waiting for their 25th Cup. But something seems to have snapped in their collective psyche of late. This season was supposed to be a celebration of all things Canadien, but it's turned into a bizarre backlash of misbehavior, under-performance, and frustration.

It was never more obvious than when Josh Georges ran Patrice Bergeron from behind.

Bergeron, a Quebec native, has spent most of the past two seasons recovering from a severe concussion. His injury was the result of a cheap run by Randy Jones of the Flyers -- a team the Habs have historically held in low esteem. This season Bergeron is a frontrunner for the Masterton Trophy. He has had no part in past Bruins/Habs pugilism, has never been in a fight, and has averaged about 20 PIM per season in the NHL. During the first period of last night's game he scored a clean, easy goal while undefended near the crease.

So Georges' hit from behind, which sent Bergeron sprawling face-first toward the crossbar and right post, was an outright declaration that the Canadiens have jettisoned any pretension of integrity or class. Had Bergeron been 6 inches forward, he'd likely be in a hospital bed this morning.

From that point on, the game changed in tone.

The rest of the match was scarred by countless scrums, the most significant of which included: Mike Komisarek's unnecessary run at a Bruins forward after time had expired in the first period, setting off a melee before intermission; Habs purse-snatcher Ryan O'Byrne provoking Bruins brawler Shawn Thornton with a cheap shot to the back, then falling to the ice in the "turtle" position as if he were a bookworm encountering the school bully after recess; and Komisarek blatantly hitting Milan Lucic from behind and then refusing to drop his gloves with either Lucic or Thornton.

The common factor in all of these incidents: Habs attempting to draw the Bruins into retaliatory penalties. More often than not, they succeeded.

We've seen this movie before. Last season, coach Guy Carbonneau instructed the Canadiens to dive repeatedly during their 7-game playoff matchup with the Bruins. Carbo knew that the dives would always turn in Montreal's favor -- either "earning" a power-play for the Habs (they won two games on PP goals) or in a worst-case scenario creating a favorable 4-on-4 situation (they scored twice in exactly that scenario).

Last night, Montreal's cheap-shots had much the same effect. With a meaningless game well in hand, the Bruins lost their discipline. They negated upcoming power-plays, and in some cases (such as Komisarek's hit on Lucic) a Habs penalty suddenly became a 4-minute power play. The momentum shifted rapidly, and a 3-1 deficit became a 4-3 lead for the visitors.

Thankfully, things turned out right in the end. Boston, clearly the better team in every legal facet of the game, controlled the final period and won on the strength of Bergeron's spectacular hit-steal-and-pass in OT. But the Canadiens had accomplished their goal of earning a charity point and officially entering the playoffs through the back door. (ed: You know the NHL has changed when the Canadiens and their fans are in a celebratory mood because they lost to the Bruins in OT. It's perverse, and I almost feel sorry for them that the rules have created such a scenario.)

Montreal celebrates a charity point.

But the hockey gods have a strange sense of humor -- Boston and Montreal are set to face off again in the first round, barring any changes in the bracket. If that happens, be prepared for at least 12 periods of the same from Montreal.

For their part, the Bruins no longer have a good reason to get involved in this kind of nonsense. They have nothing to prove to the Habs after crushing them 5-0-1 in the season series. Barring a dramatic change in fortune, they'll easily dismiss their rivals in the playoffs and exorcise the demons of the past 3 matchups. And frankly, their sights are set a little higher than merely squeaking out a 7-game victory over an 8th seed, just to be dismissed in the next round.

Boston might wear the black jerseys, but there's no question which team is currently wearing the black hat in this rivalry. Claude Julien's greatest task in the playoffs will be to teach this young team that a moment of anger is fleeting, but a convincing victory over the Habs will last forever.

5 Damn Good Reasons Why... Brodeur Is Greater Than Roy

5) The Eyeball Test

Would you rather watch a goalie do this:

Or this:

Checkmate.

4) Roy quit.

I can't emphasize this enough. Roy QUIT on Montreal. Q-U-I-T. He skated off the ice, spat a few profanities, and never wore the crest again*.

It is a fundamental moral value of sports, regardless of place and circumstance, that you don't quit. Never ever. You don't quit on your teammates, your fans, your self. Even when you just got drilled for 9 goals in the worst game of your life, you suck it up and punch a few water coolers and get at it again tomorrow. Quitting is unforgivable, and Habs fans sully the dignity of their franchise when they insist that they don't care.

* until they kissed his ass enough to come back and celebrate himself for an evening.

3) Brodeur didn't beat his wife, he just screwed her sister.

Would you rather be Chris Brown or Hugh Hefner? Double checkmate.

2) He did it better, faster.

Numbers don't lie.

Brodeur has been in the NHL for 15 years, playing a total of 986 games. He has won 56% of his games, with a GAA of 2.20, a save% of .914 and 100 shutouts.
Roy was in the NHL for 19 years, playing a total of 1029 games. He won 54% of his games, with a GAA of 2.54, a save% of .910 and only 66 shutouts.

Brodeur played 70 or more games in 11 different seasons. Roy never hit that mark.
Brodeur won 40 games in 7 different seasons, including 48 in 06-07. Roy only hit 40 a single time.
Brodeur's performance was better than Roy's in 12 of their 15 shared seasons.

And most importantly, Brodeur didn't get to order a trade to a Cup-contending team. His numbers are all consistent with the ups and downs of his franchise.

1) If you ain't first, you're last.

There is only one way for an athlete to cement his legacy: he either does something first, or he does it the most.

Can you name the guys who will come after Roy on the career wins list? Of course you can't, because you don't care. Nobody does. When Brodeur wins his next game, Roy will forever be consigned to the ranks of Curtis Joseph, Chris Osgood, and Sean Burke as "guys who are in the top 20". Only one guy gets to be on top, and that's the one who's going to be a true legend.

The Difference Between This Blog And Alexei Kovalev...

... this blog takes a few days off whenever it damn well pleases.

Having taken a good mid-season breather, I'm back on board for the stretch run. New posts coming soon.