Bruins 4, Canadiens 2 (OT)

It was a little over a minute a minute after Horton scored the game-winner when I realized that I hadn't been breathing since the goal was scored. I was that excited, that relieved, that exhausted.

Now to the game. It was far from pretty for either team. Or for the refs. There was finally a goal scored while the Bruins had a man advantage. Unfortunately, it went the wrong way. The Canadiens dove a few times, got a few calls, but were eventually hurt by a dive. Then one of the Bruins' leaders made a silly mistake, the Habs capitalized, and to Overtime it went.

But it was Nathan Horton, a newcomer to the playoffs, who scored the winning goal. He scored 3 times in the series, and was the only first-liner to really imprint himself on this series. In the regular season, when Horton was scoring, the Bruins were nearly unstoppable. When he slumped, they had to grind games out. In other words, he's a key to the Bruins' success.

Beating the Canadiens is just extra sweet. Not only is it a rivalry with tons of history, but the Canadiens play a completely different style of hockey from the rest of the NHL. Habs fans bitch and moan about other teams playing dirty, not "playing hockey the right way," then the Canadiens dive and flop like a bunch of Brazilian soccer players. That's not hockey being played the right way. It was perfect justice that Hamrlik dove to steal a call, and Kelly took advantage of the 5-on-4 to score.

PK Subban is a hell of a hockey player. But his diving is just an embarrassment. He's a strong dude. Yet David Krejci apparently can manhandle him. So can Gregory Campbell. It's just sad to watch a talented player like that resort to such childish tactics.

While I'm thrilled to eliminate the Canadiens, there's still plenty of room for improvement that needs to be addressed by the time the Flyers series starts. The Power Play actually got worse last night. Not only did they fail to score, they allowed a goal.

The nature of the shorthanded goal was what pissed me off. The Bruins struggled with entry, so they tried a gadget play. Seidenberg's supposed to back-pass to Recchi in the center, which will cause the Montreal defenders to stand up at the blue-line. But Montreal was going to yield entry. There was no need for the trickery. And it was incorrectly timed anyway. The pass came too early, Recchi couldn't handle it, and Montreal tied the game with a shorthanded goal.

The Bruins are the first team to ever win a 7 game series without scoring on the Power Play.

Bergeron's penalty was also inexcusable. 180+ feet from his own net, late in a game, with a 1 goal lead, he doesn't need to be flailing his stick around like that.

The first line needs to show up. The big players need to make big plays. Krejci is useless. He had another golden opportunity tonight, with half a net to shoot at, but his backhander went way over the crossbar. Lucic made a smart pass to find Horton for the game-winner, but he's still floating, still waiting around for something to happen. He needs to make things happen. He used to seek contact. Now he's almost avoiding it.

The Power Play and first line need to contribute. The defense can't afford anymore giveaways. The Flyers are better than the Canadiens. Much better. Sure, the Flyers' goaltending is questionable, but their forwards are relentless. The Canadiens were dangerous on the PP and on the counter-attack. The Flyers are ALWAYS dangerous.

I'll revel in this victory for a few days. But the Flyers are next. Improvements need to be made. Meanwhile, the Canadiens can...

-The Commodore

Beat Montreal

You have to appreciate the zealous enthusiasm Canadiens fans show for their team. But they sometimes go too far beyond sports fandom and it just rubs me the wrong way. It pisses me off. So whoever wins tonight's Game 7, either the Bruins or Flyers, I hope they go on to throttle the Canadiens. I hope that those cheese-eating, wine-swilling sons of surrender monkeys up North get swept and embarrassed. Twatreal fans are a bunch of babies and pussies, just like their teams.



Wednesday, they had 21,000 fans packed into the Bell Centre to watch the Canadiens play in Pittsburgh. That's pretty cool. Then they all took the streets and celebrated. Still fine, but also pushing it a bit. It's the 2nd goddamned round of the playoffs. Then they started rioting, and looting.

Canadiens fans and Quebecois identify with their team as a sort of National Representation. Quebec isn't technically its own country, but its inhabitants (Les Habitants) are kind of like Southerners in the US. They're part of our country, but they're also part of their own sub-country. A nation within a country, like the Welsh in Great Britain, or Bavarians in Germany, Catalan in Spain, and so on. So they feel like the Canadiens represent them as a people. Hence the nickname: Habs (which is also what the descendants of French settlers are called). And that's all well and good. But what do they do to celebrate their Provincial Team's victory, what should be a glorification of French Canada? Attack and steal from the businesses of other French Canadians!

Fuck that shit!

Imagine if USA won the World Cup, and us Americans celebrated by burning the flag.

And then there's how those classy Montreal fans treat our national anthem...



Compared to how we here in Boston treat the Canadian anthem...



Even Philadelphians, who boo everything, don't disrespect their anthem...



All I can really say to these Quebecois cunts is to just get over yourselves. You riot after winning a 2nd round series. You riot after winning a 1st round series in 2008. You wanted to murder Kyle McClaren for what he did to Richard Zednick. I remember Montreal papers fabricating bullshit stories about Zednick being comatose and/or having a broken vertebra after that hit.



And why is it that playoff games played on Canadian ice see about 800% more debris throwing? A bad call goes against the Blackhawks, and people boo. But against the Flames, and beer cups, hot dog wrappers, all sorts of rubbish gets tossed onto the ice.

But most Canadians are tolerable. It's just the French Canadians, specifically the ones that wear a CH on their chest.

So let's say tonight the Flyers are up 4-1 with 2 minutes remaining, I hope the Garden starts chanting "Beat the Habs!" As much as I hate the Flyers, Philadelphia, Philadelphians, really the entire Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; I don't wish them any particular physical harm, just emotional misery. Montreal and their Canadiens, on the other hand... Well, let's just say I would love to see Montreal destroyed by a blizzard, or see the St. Lawrence River flood, then freeze over, encasing all the Qebecois and Habitants in an icy mass grave, sort of like the Egyptians in The Ten Commandments, but colder.



-The Commodore