Habs Fans, Your Ride is Here!

As if beating Montreal, in Montreal isn't fun enough.....I've been checking out some online hockey forums, and good Lord are Habs fans a riot! They just can't seem to grasp that the Habs just aren't as good as the Bruins this year. I know it's a weird situation for them, but man oh man, some of the inane excuse making and such is getting pathetic! The comments run the gambit. Here's a sample of actual comments I've seen: "Sad to see Boston has become the dirtiest team in the NHL"-Despite the fact that the only dirty hit of the game came from that tough guy of theirs, Ryan O'Byrne. A high hit from behind with 3 seconds left in the game is cheap. I don't care how they try to position it. It was a cheap shot and done strictly out of frustration. That stuff will not win him any respect around the league. O'Byrne should stick to stealing purses. It's about all he's good at apparently (then again, he DID get caught...so I guess he isn't good at that either.). Habs fans are claiming Gui Latendress (AKA-"take-off-your-dress") was injured by a "cheap shot" by Kobasew.-Despite the fact that it was just two guys fighting for position to get the puck. Something that happens dozens of times per game. It's not Kobasews fault he had better position/leverage and Take-off-your-dress fell down. I suppose I can forgive Habs fans for being confused though. I mean, it isn't very often they see their players fighting for loose pucks, so it's kind of new to them. I also get a kick out of this gem "Of course Boston won, they just sat in a trap"- Keep in mind, Julien rightfully pointed out that Montreal, in the FIRST period, was basically sitting in a 1-4 defensive posture. Pot, meet kettle. Then of course, we have this beauty, which I hear over and over (just like the "trap" nonsense): "Boston scored ugly goals, as usual"- For starters, the people that say this obviously don't watch the B's very often. First of all, it's hard to lead the league in goals scored if all you do is play a trap, and score ugly goals. Second, their leading goal scorers are Kessel, Savard and Krejci. Do these guys strike you as the type of players that just score "ugly" goals? Lastly, and most importantly....who cares what they look like? Habs fans have this hand up on how things look. The "artistry" of the game. They'd rather lose, as long as they looked good doing it. This is the ultimate in snobbery, arrogance and idiocy. It's just the easiest excuse they can come up with. "Well sure, they won, but it's because they play like a bunch of brutish thugs. That isn't how hockey is meant to be played" Blah Blah F'n Blah! The hypocrisy of it is, they all yell and scream their fool heads off whenever a Canadien player makes even the slightest hit, or throws a punch in a fight, even if it misses badly like most of Henry's yesterday. I learned long ago, when I was at a game up there when Patrick Roy got hurt. The crowd was screaming for that epitome of grace on ice himself, Todd Ewen to go out and kill Stephane Quintal....even though Quintal was thrown into Roy by a Canadien. NO Hab on the ice even said a word to Quintal, because they all knew it wasn't his fault. But that didn't stop these hockey elitists in Montreal to call for blood. Nothing I hate more than a hypocrite, and Montreal seems to be loaded with them. (To be fair, the older gentlemen sitting next to me that night were embarrassed by the display by so many of the "fans". Seems that was the start of this era of new fans up there. Sad. Their fan base, much like the team itself is incredibly divided. Some lay all the blame at Kovalev's feet. He's lazy as ever, yet they all loved him when he was lazy and they were winning. Some claim their coach, the Rodent, is to blame. This is understandable, since he clearly isn't doing ANYTHING to help matters. His idea of great "coaching" seems to be throwing 12 names in a hat and making line combo's out of the order he pulls them out. He makes no in-game adjustments...other than sitting their most dangerous offensive player in a one goal game (I swear, he must be related to Steve Kasper somehow). Worse yet, he seems to enjoy publicly bashing his players....well, as long as they aren't French-Canadian. Now, contrast that with Claude Julien. 'nuf said. Some blame Gainey for putting this bunch together. But oddly, it's pretty close to the team they had last year. Biggest losses were Streit and Ryder. Funny thing is, those two are only rarely mentioned when talk of "what's wrong" pops up. Anyway, as far as the game yesterday, I'm happy with the effort. back to back matinees (which the B's never seem to play well in), including travel AND it was IN Montreal. Yep, I'll take a 3-1 win any time...."ugly" or not. I guess "ugly" is subjective though. Let;s recap, shall we? Wideman's goal, was it ugly? Well, from a Bruins perspective, not at all. He picked off a pass, knew the clock was ticking down, and snapped off a great wrister that beat Price from 40 feet. From the Montreal side? Yeah, it was ugly. It was ugly that their hero and "All-Star" Mike Komisarek wasn't bright enough to just eat the puck in the final seconds when Boston was buzzing. Not only did he not eat it, he inexplicably just threw it up the middle of the ice. Why not, at worst, throw it off the boards, or drop it behind your net? major major bone head play by that dope. Couldn't have happened to a better guy. Thornton's goal? Well, as far as I'm concerned, as a Bruins fans, that wasn't "ugly" at all. It was a FOURTH line doing what you'd want any bottom six line doing. They applied tons of pressure, never stopped moving their feet and kept getting pucks towards the net. Now, if I'm a Montreal fan, I can see ugly all over the place on that one. Start with Take-off-your-dress not clearing the puck because of pressure by Bitz, putting it right on Yelle's stick. Watch the Habs run all over the ice not knowing who to cover. Ugly. Watch Henry not pay any attention to Thornton, allowing him to get in position to snap one by Price. While we're talking ugly, what about Henry's bout with Thornton? Say what you will, he was called up to do exactly what he did (well, he was supposed to actually win, but why nit pick?). Yes, I know Montreal was down a defenseman. But are you seriously telling me Alex Henry is the next best D-man they have in their system? (if that's true, then they're in bigger trouble than I thought). What was ugly, was guys like Kostopoulos crashing into Thomas WELL after the whistle. Nice job, hero. Takes a real tough guy to go flying into a pile of players after the whistle blows. I'm impressed. Perhaps the ugliest moment of the game came with 3 seconds left when O'Byrne hit Kobasew high, and from behind. I've actually heard Hab fans try to justify that hit by saying it was "retribution for Kobasew's hit" on "the Dress". IF that is true, it not only shows that O'byrne isn't a very good hockey player, he also isn't very bright. Of course, no conversation about "ugly" in this game could be complete without mentioning those uniforms. I swear it took almost a full period for my eyes to adjust. I can't imagine how awful they looked in person. I'd have paid money to hear the players comments when they learned they'd have to wear those things. Bottom line is, the Bruins are the better team this year. Does that guarantee them anything in the playoffs? Of course not. But after listening to all the BS last year, it's kind of fun watching Habs fans squirm. Their house is in disarray and they don't know how to react, other than to OVER react. As I look at the standings today, I can't help but think of that old Alice Cooper song, 18 And I Like It! Go B's-Kynch