Diary of a Habs Fan: Round 1- Montreal vs Washington

April 15^th Montreal 2 Washington 1 (Montreal leads 2 games to 1)

So the Habs won somehow.

I did my best to keep calm. I kicked my leg slightly after the first goal but that was about it.

Why was there a man in spacesuit in the crowd? Wouldn't that make it hard to see the game?

I couldn't understand French commentators but it sounded like they were talking about eggs.

Pleks' goal was nice. I saw it coming but wouldn't have been surprised to see Washington score either. It's important to remember that we're only up by one game, no big deal. Even going to Montreal tied 1-1 would be good. As long as we don't completely fold I'll be happy. It will be a good way to start next season.

I'm tired and one of my eyes has been red for a few days now. Must be allergies. I'd better go to bed.

April 17^th Montreal 5 Washington 6 (OT) (series tied 1 to 1)

Well whatever, if someone had told me at the beginning of this series that we'd win the first, chase Theo in the second and take both games to overtime I'd take it.

I hate when the refs stop calling things in the playoffs because it always seems to hurt Montreal who has been a smaller team for as long as I can remember. Halak couldn't handle all the interference once it got going. I'm not sure if they will but I hope they go with Price for game three. He hasn't played in a while and sometimes he struggles in Montreal but he's bigger and he can't do much worse than Halak did tonight.

The playoffs are stressful. In some ways I almost enjoy the games more when Montreal has been eliminated because then I can just enjoy the games.

I think the best way to deal with watching sports is to expect the worse and hope for the best. If you visualize losing then the losing ends up not being so bad and the winning ends up being great. I'm sure all the recent bandwagon fans haven't realized that yet but they will... eventually. In sports winning is the exception, loss and disappointment are the norm but that's what makes winning so exciting – you get so used to the losing that it always catches you off guard.

April 19^th Montreal 1 Washington 5 (Washington leads 2 games to 1)

What's worse – having your team lose because they were cheated or because they just sucked?

Until tonight this series was full of surprises. Now things are unfolding exactly the way everyone said it would. I'm sure that at least once this summer I'll be ranting about how we were one goal away from almost having this series in the bag and someone will tell me I'm crazy, that only a Habs fan could possibly see it that way... and they'd be right but at the same time we almost had this one.

I think that the average hockey fan (myself included) almost always thinks they could better than their teams' GM. When things are going poorly they start to think they could do better than the coach and when things are going horribly, horribly wrong they start to think they could do better than the players.

I'm at stage two right now. I don't understand why Martin wouldn't have played Price for this game or who he didn't dress Sergei Kostitsyn. I don't understand why he can't wear a suit that fits him either. I could go on and on...

April 21^st Montreal 3 Washington 6 (Washington leads 3 games to 1)

Bah! Not much to say about that one. When you play well for 40 minutes but don't get the lead and your goaltender lets in four goals but you can't say he was bad you know you're playing a team that's better than you. There have been times throughout the series where we've looked like the better team but now that a few games have passed the gap is really showing.

At least we played well. We had our best players no one was injured and there weren't any horrible calls or poor coaching that determined the game.

Oh well, next year should be better. We'll see how we do in terms of re-signing everyone but we should have better chemistry, our young players should be better, we might be able to trade one of our goaltenders for a useful asset and we'll finally have Subban on the team – that guy is going to be awesome. He'll probably win rookie of the year.

Now the next game, which will probably be the last game, will be on Friday at which point I'll be in Guelph. I'll probably have to find a bar to watch it in or something. That will be tough. Sports suffering (and I'll be surprised if the game ends up being anything else) is really best done at home... alone... with a bowl of ice cream. I wonder why bars don't serve ice cream...

April 23^rd  Montreal 2 Washington 1 (Washington leads 3 games to 2)

So I missed the first period but caught all of the second and the third. Sometimes I feel like I bring bad luck to the team because it always seems to be the periods or games that I miss when they do the best.

Anyways I was sort of distracted and my recollection of the game is a bit hazy because the audio wasn't on and there was another television with the Boston-Buffalo game on and I was talking to Adam the whole time. Mainly I just remember this feeling of dread, that we had the lead but it was just a matter of time until we lost it. I knew that we might win but only if we scored more goals. There was no way we were going to win 2-0 or 2-1.

And yet somehow... we did. We sat back and played defensive, Washington scored one and was buzzing in the final minute. I was sure they were going to score the tying goal but somehow they didn't.

I still feel a sense of impending doom but it's been postponed and there's a brief feeling of relief. It was a great start to the weekend.

Good times.

April 26^th Montreal 4 Washington 1 (series tied 3 games to 3)

I liked the part where P.K Subban played. He's shockingly un-timid for someone with just three NHL games under his belt.

I liked the part where O'Byrne hit Backstrom into the Montreal bench.

I liked the part where, after Halak finally let in a goal, the crowd gave him a standing ovation. The Montreal crowd is usually so vicious with its goaltenders and that felt like a turning point for them. That was the point in the game where we usually lose our confidence and let the other team get back in it but we didn't and I think the crowds' uncharacteristic support was a big part of that.

It's hard not to become hopeful at this point. Part of me thinks we have a very good chance of winning the series now. Another part of me thinks the hockey gods are just setting me up for something horrible.

April 28^th Montreal 2 Washington 1 (Montreal wins series 4 games to 3)

When I was younger the only two sports I really followed were hockey and baseball. In the late eighties when I was just old enough to get the concept of cheering for a team I decided to cheer for the Montreal Canadians and the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Jays were great in the late eighties and, of course, in 92 and 93 they won the World Series. Montreal went to the finals in 89 and then won The Cup in 93. I had just turned nine by then and I thought that this was how sports worked – that you chose a team and then, by cheering for them and willing them towards victory, you could make them win.

Since then I've learned that my concept of the world of sports was very, very far from reality. I haven't gone back to baseball since those days and, aside from one season where the stars aligned (until the playoffs) and a few decent first round performances, my time as a Habs fan hasn't exactly been magical.

Last night was special though. It felt just like old times.