At Long Last, Habs Clinch Playoff Berth With Overtime Loss To Leafs
by Robert L on Apr 10, 2010 9:48 PM EDT
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Better late than never it is said, but the Montreal Canadiens are in the playoffs for the fifth time in six seasons. Who they are to meet in the first round remains to be decided tomorrow. They finish the 2009-10 campaign with 88 points.
The Canadiens got goals from Andrei Markov, Brian Gionta and Marc-Andre Bergeron and were leading the Maple Leafs by a 3-2 score when Toronto's Christian Hanson tied the game in the third period. The Canadiens hung on to bring it to overtime, where the eventual loss to the Leafs played out in mere formality.
As it stands, with games to be played tomorrow, the Habs could face either of the Capitals, Devils, Penguins or Sabres in the first round.
Article and game summary to follow here sometime later tonight. In the interim, feel free to add you comments. Meanwhile, enjoy this Dominic Moore highlight from his Maple Leafs days.
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Enjoy the perennial off season Leafs!
by blockersave93 on Apr 10, 2010 10:46 PM EDT up reply actions
5 years without playoffs, and not a single top end prospect to speak of. We all know what’s worse.
http://berkshireonthehabs.blogspot.com/
by Andrew Berkshire on Apr 11, 2010 1:39 AM EDT up reply actions
Your team can’t knock out the Canadiens. They haven’t made the playoffs since 2004. They haven’t won a Cup since 1967, you are here why?
The fact that the Canadiens have allowed themselves to be compared to the Leafs is embarrassing enough, but now Leaf fans are heckling the Canadiens over an OT win in which the Canadiens made the playoffs and they finished in 29th?
Wow, just Wow.
Ughhhh....
It was like the whole season in one game. This team can make the game look so simple, then one shift later, make getting a win seem like climbing Mount Everest.
Gionta, Gomez, Cammy, Pleks and Pouliot all looked great for the most part. Bergeron came through with a big game on D. Markov solid as always…
Hammer and Spacek looked overwhelmed by the pace. Moore is looking like a keeper, and Lapierre was a solid, hard working pest.
The rest of the pack looked like passengers. Halak had probably his worst game all year, which is not encouraging. Hopefully he can shake it off- a lot of it stemmed from that first bad goal.
Other than that, if this team doesn’t know the meaning of urgency yet, I doubt they’ll learn it in a week. Martin and the staff seemed to have a good game plan, they were all over the Leafs, but as always, he brought his best statue pose to the arena. I don`t think I`ve ever seen another team so adept at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
Eighth if Philly`s in, 7th if the Rangers win tomorrow
by westcoasthabs on Apr 10, 2010 9:59 PM EDT up reply actions
Right! I don´t really care about that but playoffs without Philly would be nice. Not that I like the Rangers…
I wouldn`t be sorry to see Elbows (Pronger) and Carcillo on the sidelines either…
by westcoasthabs on Apr 10, 2010 10:02 PM EDT up reply actions
31-3-5 when they score 3+ goals a game….. With who they have on the roster, and the money we spent to get them there, 3 plus goals should be the rule and not the exception.
I watched this game, from start to finish, and didn’t feel at any time the Habs had the heart tied to the result. They played well, it was an entertaining game no doubt, but the stupid first goal from Hanson and his second one…. well man… Hamrlik is no longer a positive in the Habs lineup. That play was lacking any sign of emotion…. slide right with the guy just so it looks like you took him.
Halak on those two goals was horrendous as well. I know we only needed 1 point to make it, but coming into the playoffs, I would have liked they showed some emotion, a 5 goal win at home before the playoffs to show the fans they care they are in there.
Sometimes I feel like the guys in Fever Pitch ( is it blasphemy to site a baseball movie in a hockey blog??). Half way through the movie Jimmy Fallon is talking to one of his students (Phil) and Jimmy’s complaining the girlfriend doesn;t understand his connection to the Sox, the kid looks at him and says “I’ll leave you with one question to ponder…. You love the Sox, but have they ever loved you back?” Tonight I felt this question being posed, and can think back on all the times we beat the Nords, the Leafs, Boston, and Buffalo and I can say they treated me very well early on. It doesn’t help that the Bettman era ruined a lot of good things in NHL hockey, but the rivalry side of things have died down and now its a crap shoot. We play Buf, Devs or…. Wash? What kind of history do we have with these teams? I wish for divisional rivalries to return, for us to get rid of the shoot out, go back to the days of 5 on 5 OTs.
We don;t see RuLE changes to any other professional sport like we have with the NHL in the last 20 yrs in regards to how the game ends. There should be some form of coup to take over the NHL and replace Bettman by eradication.
Sorry for the rambling. Good we’re in, looking forward to being the Dark Horse. Lets see if Halak is still in Martin;s good books.
by Cruisin4aBruisin on Apr 10, 2010 10:08 PM EDT reply actions
Go Rangers...
If Philly wins, we’ll be cannon fodder for the Caps.
And we’ll be Devil-fodder if we get 7th…which is worse? We were 2-1-1 against the Caps…1-2-1 against the Devils.
Eliminate the posts from tonight, and the slumps for Cam and Benny are over and the 31-3-5 with 3+ goals becomes a reality going forward against either team. Bruisin has a point, you may eat those words.
by blockersave93 on Apr 10, 2010 10:53 PM EDT up reply actions
they still could have blown it in OT
you know, there was still a highly improbably, but technically possible, way for the Habs to blow it in OT and STILL fail to make the playoffs…
if, for some inexplicable reason, Halak was pulled for an extra man in OT and the Leafs scored into the empty net, the Habs don’t get the point in the standings and then if the Rangers beat Philadelphia in OT, the Habs would have missed the playoffs…
so if someone had a braincramp and decided to try to end overtime ASAP because it was ‘meaningless’ who won, well, there would be some ’splaining to do…
“84.2 Overtime – Regular-season – Extra Attacker – A team shall be
allowed to pull its goalkeeper in favor of an additional skater in the
overtime period. However, should that team lose the game during the
time in which the goalkeeper has been removed, it would forfeit the
automatic point gained in the tie at the end of regulation play, except if
the goalkeeper has been removed at the call of a delayed penalty
against the other team. Should the goalkeeper proceed to his bench
for an extra attacker due to a delayed penalty call against the
opposing team, and should the non-offending team shoot the puck
directly into their own goal, the game shall be over and the team that
was to be penalized declared the winner.”
this is why you never see teams do it… though the way this season has gone for the Habs, I wouldn’t have been too surprised to see Halak wander over to the bench and stay there before OT started ;-)
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