wow man. that was beautiful robert. blue rodeo speaks for all canadian romantics. love to watch them in bars in new england, where they give it their all to crowds of 30-50, smattered with a few die hard fans who have made the trek.

you provoked me into a second post in two days, after two years of silently enjoying your top notch blog. how could i not respond when you directly addressed me and my optimism from yesterday , twice?! lol

ok, but seriously. i too was furious watching last night’s ridiculousness. almost jumped off the bloody couch in anger at numerous botched breakout passes, and weak finishes in the low slot. Gionta was as invisible as Andre, Gomez give aways abound, and Bergeron freaks me out. What the heck is Gill doing out there on the 3-5 penalty kill?! i wouldn’t trust that guy if we were up 7-on-5! and the penalties!!! i hope jacques tears a strip off them. i don’t wanna see another delay of game all season. the quota is full.

ah, but here’s the rub: they won. this still catalyzing chemistry experiment is .500 after its first month of rattling, ungreased internal combustion. things will get smoother. but i won’t repeat all my positive optimism from yesterday – folks can read it in comment #6 on your “Habs Road Woes Continue in Chicago”, if they like.

i will repeat my punch line: this habs team is better than any i’ve seen since the mid-1990s.

see, the negativism in the habs media just hasn’t hit me yet. i am waiting patiently for Martin to make music with this group of talented individuals that Blue Rodeo could never make. Happy, winning, confident, cohesive, consistent. that’s not in Blue Rodeo’s play book. but i believe it will be a natural progression for this group of go getters.

We should know by November 28. After games against Pittsburgh and Washington close out this fateful month to come.

Brilliant piece, Robert. It’s like you were in my head and heart and knew exactly how I was feeling. I’ve made my thoughts know since the summer on how I felt about our team and the direction that we have taken. I’m conflicted because I know that we probably can’t win the Cup but I also am a loyal Hab fan who enjoys being part of the day to day action. Some people say that our new players are better than last year’s crew. My answer to that is, “big deal”. Being better than last year doesn’t mean that you’re good enough to soar to higher heights. That’s a game that some Hab fans play and I want no part of it. The other subconscious head game is the notion that we are in the hunt to make the playoffs. Make the playoffs? Years ago, that used to be a given. Now it’s an accomplishment. I live in fear that we will keep going in circles on this merry-go-round until one day we slip and fall off. Then Gainey will be replaced and a new person (French speaking, of course) will come in to clean house and set down another new, long term plan. Why do I think and feel this way? I’m at a loss to answer that question. " It breaks my heart and I don’t know why."

So, they’re not a great team. So what? They’re interesting though.

There’s no reason to be too depressed too soon Robert. I believe we said in the summer that this team would need a good few months to gel, so we should be grateful for any points in those months.

Plus, let’s not forget that Markov added to this mix gives us a PP, a use for Josh Gorges and a new top pairing.

You can lament Carey Price all you want, but you’ve seen tens if not hundreds goaltend for this team, so should know better than to think your happiness is attached to the back of that goalie sweater and not the front.

If you want some instant tonic for your madness, it is surely the Leafs. Mike Komisarek was involved in 3 goals against, and for all his talk of adjusting would do well to find his 2008-09 levels, and may never reciver to 2007-08 form; Toskala makes Carey Price look like a gold glove short stop, Pavel Kubina was traded for a lump of coal, and the team is as truculent as Brian Burke is modest.

Cheer up. You were just at a crappy bar, is all….

Robert, I’m sorry to see you this way.
Try to look at the positives.

The Leafs might be the worst team in the NHL, but they will always be a pain in our ass.
Ok, we blew the lead. Halak was not great during the game, but he did look very sharp in the shootout.

We’re without our best player in the lineup, a new coach, ton of new players, and goaltenders and everyone on the team discovering their identity in the most demanding city to play for in all of sports. To say this team is facing the biggest challenges of all teams in the NHL is an understatement.
In the meantime, we’re .500, and 6-0 in OT.
I would say that is something to look at as promising taking everything into consideration. If we can get AK to pull his head out of his ass and really play, that would also be helpful.

It could be worse. You could be a Leafs fan.

Hope you feel better.

Their OT wins indicate they are able to handle pressure.

I felt much worse when I watched a Canadiens team that was not giving full effort last season. This season’s team is pretty consistently giving full effort, as you, Robert L., seem to recognize. You cannot reasonably expect more from them, and to be sad about a team not able to give more than full effort is rather absurd.

So I think what you are sad about is that when it give full effort, we still don’t have a team like the ones we had in the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies. You still have at least remnants of that sense of entitlement that subdoxastic—I had to copy and paste his moniker since I was unable to grasp it well enough to type it myself!—says he has managed to rid himself of. It’s hard for some of us older fans to get rid of it completely, even after the 15 straight seasons over 16 years in which we have failed to win the Stanley Cup and, in fact, never come within miles of winning it.

That our team’s limitations became crystal clear to you in a game played against our arch-rivals, the Toronto Maple Leafs, made it all that much worse. What you are now suffering from is post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD for short. You will recover with our help. You must keep the lines of communication open so we can track your progress!

What we have is a fairly decent collection of players who will continue to improve as they play more games. But they are not the best team in the league, nowhere near it. They do not have the level or depth of talent of the Pittsburgh Penguins, for example. But they do have potential, and we can hope for better team performances if some of our younger players come through and once our most consistent player, Markov, returns. Should our defence firm up and our goaltenders find their best form, we might even go places.

Like many others, I knew we were in grave trouble when the fans at the game began their na na na chant with a two-goal lead and almost four minutes to go. Even if karma did not go to work, it would certainly give the Leafs sufficient incentive to strike hard. And they did. In the context of the game, an overtime period or a shootout is incredible stress, and I say this as one who was a poverty lawyer in Watts 40 years ago and who worked with the mothers you describe. Our team reacted well to this pressure, as it has consistently this season. I take heart from that. Our team tries hard, and it is not without talent. As I said in an earlier thread, it is a good time to be a Canadiens fan once again.

To state the obvious, It is a long season. Let’s give them a chance before we pronounce judgement.

Well, I see now why my addition did not appear. This blog will not accep the symbol I have now posted twice, the little arrows with the g inside.