Canadiens are a great team? Depends. Who's asking?

I would like to first say that to fix our very long sidebar, bios are restricted to 20-30 words. Fix it manually or request one of the html savvy kids to do it. And well. Yeah.

Anyhow, this is a post I want to make sure happens. After we beat Edmonton and we're not playing the Leafs till Saturday, so I wanted to give a short evaluation of how our kids are going.

(Firstly, I groaned when I saw Leafs. It's because those guys have been drilling our goalies and while I know it'll be different - it'll still be a variation of the same game that I've seen. But why can't we play anyone else? What the hell is with the rivalries? You're destroying perfectly good pairings by putting them on repeat! I want them to play the Sharks! Or I dunno, somewhere else! There's one thing this game has proved, we need to shuffle the matchups a bit more.)

And I spent a lot of time yelling "DUCK YOU GREENE!" and even though I slept on it, I still felt the same. Thanks to some alcohol I'm a lot more relaxed. Oh and I still hate Greene.

But there is one thing I'd like to address, which comes mostly from fan reactions in the aftermath of Oil-suck and Habs-frenzy. We still have no Higgins. Yet we somehow managed to beat the Edmonton Oilers. I know they're going through a slump but they seemed pretty due for a win. And well losing Higgins just sucks. I want him back, I can't live without him. Hell I can't sleep without him. But when was Montreal suddenly a team where beating teams even without a key player was normal? What? Where? I want to grapple some stupid lies people say about the Habs and as well uh... If you think I'm wrong then tough. I write this post. I say what happens.

The Montreal Canadiens are not a speedy team.
The Habs fans and haters will agree on that. One needs to understand how this works. A speedy single player must slow down in order for a slower linemate to catch up. Additionally, lines with little "chemistry" are more likely to fumble or take careful passes. Speed is all relative people. One or two fast skaters won't account for everyone else. However their speed is still there, it doesn't mean this is a slow-as-hell team. The terrific first line is usually effective - Koivu & Ryder both skate like they're high. While the second line isn't exactly the speedy Russian line as people dreamed it to be, they're very agile skaters and have great east-west speed. Apart from that, certain floaters pop up to score what could be a GWG.

The Montreal Canadiens don't have grit?
Komisarek plays like the energizer bunny, what else do you need? Nonetheless the game against E-town cleared that up easy. Three whole fights like it was old school hockey again they say. Komisarek arguably won against Winchester (who punches like a girl!) even with the lights out. Additionally Souray shows his determination and loyalty with giving Greene the spanking he deserved. While Johnson turned out fine, he was obviously shaken.

The Montreal Media are evil.
I think that is fairly true. Being evil is a pre-requisite to work with them. However what they love more than critisizing any of their scapegoats is to stir the pot with tasty quotes. And while I may not like Lats much, I sympathise with the recent events where Roy has constantly undermined Latandresse's position in the team. For chrissakes he's 19 years old. Lay off him, he's no Sidney Crosby and no one is asking him to be. Though the media does herald Guillame to be some sort of vanguard for... never mind.

They'll never beat their divison rivals.
I dunno it looks pretty peachy. Sure we might lose a couple of fights against the Sens, Bruins or the Leafs but we seem to be achieving a lot more than any of them. Screw Buffalo since they're not human. But the Leafs have played about three more games than the Habs and there's about 4 potential points there for us to lead in front of them.

I've just gotten a mind numbing headache so this will do for now. I still stand by my first ever prediction of them only making conference finals at the most. They're good but not that good.

And if you can't be bothered reading what I said, this article chronicles our Habs well. That and Souray coolness factor has been rising since that game.