Habs Report

Cheers to the Habs for winning the Eastern Conference. Last Tuesday’s win against Ottawa gave Montreal its first division title since the 1991-1992 season, and their first 100-plus point season since the last time they took home the Stanley Cup in ’93. The game was music to every fans’ ears.

Cheers to the Habs for winning the Eastern Conference. Last Tuesday’s win against Ottawa gave Montreal its first division title since the 1991-1992 season, and their first 100-plus point season since the last time they took home the Stanley Cup in ’93.
The game was music to every fans’ ears. Gorgeous. Stunning. Perfect.
Netminder Carey Price made 32 saves for his third career shutout. Meanwhile, Alex Kovalev, Mathieu Dandenault and Andrei Kostitsyn provided the offence to lead the Canadiens to a 3-0 victory over the Sens.
The fans gave the team a 15-minute standing ovation that began minutes before the game even ended. I swear, you would have thought the game was being played in Montreal.
Meanwhile, Thursday night’s win against Buffalo eliminated the Sabres from the playoffs. The Habs got some unlikely offence in the form of two goals from Bryan Smolinski. Christopher Higgins had the third goal as the Habs won the game 3-1.
Price was nearly flawless, once again, stopping 27 shots – including 13 in the final frame. Price is now 12-3 since taking over from Cristobal Huet.
The final match-up was against the Toronto Maple Leafs
The Habs took the win 3-1. Price was great in goal as Mark Streit scored and Higgins banged in two to end the season on a high note.
Farm call-up Gregory Stewart made his NHL debut Saturday night, and with two breakaways and about four awesome scoring chances, he looked good out there. He had awesome puck instincts; he was always in the right place at the right time – and it was no coincidence.
Higgins also seems to be peaking just at the right time; he has five goals in the last six games. In addition to that nugget of good news, star defencemen Mike Komisarek is reportedly ready to go and should be in the line-up for game one of the first series against Boston.
At the beginning of the game Streit was given the team’s unsung hero award and Kovalev was named the team’s 2007-2008 season MVP. With Kovalev’s parents proudly looking on from the audience (which also contained David Suzuki and Al Gore), the sold-out crowd provided a deafening ovation, paling only in comparison to the ovation the team received at the end of the game. After the clock hit zero, the players gathered at center ice to salute the fans that have been with them all season.
Montreal officially claimed top spot in the East after Pittsburgh fell 2-0 to Philadelphia Sunday afternoon.
I don’t know who could possibly be disappointed with the Habs this year. No one even had them making the playoffs. If you had said eight months ago that the Habs would be atop their division and Eastern Conference champions, you probably would’ve been laughed at. No one thought this was possible.
Passion for this team is one of the elements that makes this city so great, and it’s given me a lot of joy to have covered their every move since September. We all wish them the best for the playoffs.

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