Weekly Topic 1: Second Banana

Apparently both life and hockey still go on even as we Caps fans recover from our heartbreaking first round exit (who knew?) - so it seems as good a time as any to hitch my wagon to some other poor, unsuspecting team.

Luckily for me I already have a few backups lined up, teams that I follow all year long to some degree or another - and amazingly a few of them are still kicking after the first round! It's come as quite a shock in the CC household to not fully despise every team in the playoffs, I have to admit.

I'm always keeping an eye on the Sharks and Stars out west because I have a number of players I like on each team...but I have to admit the team I'll be watching the most is Les Habitants, the Montreal Canadiens.

And I swear it's not (just) because they face Philadelphia in the next round.

I've been waiting for this type of season from them since I first started watching them eight years ago, when I was but a wee innocent American studying in Montreal, and I have to say watching them this season in the games that they dominate has been a true joy. When I was initiated into the world of the Habs back in 2000 they were the scrappy underdogs; today, when they play to their potential, they are nothing short of breathtaking. How can you not love the awesome puckhandling skills of Alex Kovalev, the whirling dervishes that are the Kostitsyn brothers, or the bone-crushing checks of Mike Komisarek?

And then there is Carey Price, the rookie goaltender thrust into the spotlight and handed the reins of the historic franchise in the hopes that he could repeat the magic performed by Ken Dryden and Patrick Roy before him. And Saku Koivu, the captain who has been knocked down so many times both physically and mentally over the last ten years and yet still manages to pour his heart and soul into this team.

When your hopes are dashed early it's almost more painful than not making the playoffs at all, but I'm really trying to enjoy playoff hockey again - hopefully my Habs can help me out to the tune of a little thing called the Stanley Cup...