What happened?

Well only those wearing rose coloured glasses believe the habs have a chance of making the playoffs. So what happened? I think most people can see the two 8 game losing streaks created most of the mess that eliminated the habs from the playoff race. Another reason could be linked to the anemic performance against eastern team wannabes New Jersey and Detroit. First, if we review those six games against the wings and the devils some things become apparent. Goaltending is an issue. One can argue if the habs had a decent back-up goaltender, Price should have probably not played any of those games. However, he did play three of the six games.  He lost all of them. His save percentage was a poor .887 average for those games.  Kinkaid played one game against his old team and had a save percentage of .907 but he lost that game. Charles Lindgren played two games and even though he won one of the games in a shootout his save percentage for those two games was .850. Surprisin...

Statement games are important. The Canadiens victory over the Bruins a few weeks ago was just that. It was a tooth and nail game where the habs did not give an inch. Unlike the recent past,  Deslauriers fought Miller to a draw in a lively fight. Finally, even though the habs gave up a late goal due to a brain-dead penalty, they came back in overtime. This victory let the habs get back in the playoff picture. This habs team has confidence or attitude or whatever way you want to define it. It reminded me a lot of the 83-84 habs. That year, the habs had a subpar year barely making the playoffs. They had poor goaltending with the likes of Richard Sevigny and Rick Wamsley. There was a changing of the guard as Guy Carbonneau, Mats Naslund, Bobby Smith, and Chris Chelios began to take up leadership roles. The habs had also their version of Andrew Hammond as Steve Penney joined the team late in the season. Even though the team had a poor season, late in the year they played the bruin...