Koivu's reaction to Kostitsyn's goal: Another thing that should be on my list! (Photo credit to habsinsideout.com)
O’Byrne, coming down along the boards makes a blind pass in front of the net. But Price is on the bench for the delayed penalty! It’s in! #!$%##!… I’ve never seen anything like it before in my life!
That, my friends, was my favourite moment of this unlucky, albeit unusual, centennial season.
After the loss Wednesday night, I’ll admit I was quite sad. I didn’t want the season to end on a seemingly endless losing streak, but let’s face it, the minute Grabovski laid that hit on Markov a couple weeks back, it was over. Actually when you think about it, it has pretty much been over since the All-Star Break, other than a couple of heroic performances by a certain Mr. Jaroslav Halak, and a few games where we learned what it would be like to have a first line that could really do some damage out there. Instead of dissecting the inexplicable hell that was February, the wishy-washy unsteadiness that was March, and the dreadfully disappointing month of April, I think it would be fitting to list my 10 favourite moments of the 2008-2009 season (in no particular order). Feel free to sound off on yours in the comment section below!
1) Well I think I made it clear above, but when I think of my favourite things, the O’Byrne “goal” tops the list. It provided some much needed comic relief, and although it would have probably been funnier had we won the game, it still tops my list!
2) 2 was more difficult to decide, but I think I’m going to have to go with Carey Price and Tom Kostopoulos sacrificing Josh Gorges’ stick, to try to bring him some goal-scoring luck! Funny thing was, it actually worked (though it took a couple of games to sink in)!
3) I’d have to go with my favourite unlucky jerseys… Montreal tends to be known for its nice classic jerseys. I think that this year after the barber pole striped ones, our reputation has changed!
4) Getting Mathieu Schneider. What a difference a player makes… to the power-play that is. We went from being at the bottom of the barrel to coming up somewhere in the middle. He really helped us out there.
5) Grabovski also getting linked to gang members. Not sure how many of you heard about this… but about 2 weeks or so ago, I saw a news piece linking him to the same gang member as the Kostitsyn brothers and Roman Hamrlik. Looks like they did hang out together when he was still in Montreal…
6) Speaking of Grabovski, (and I can’t believe I didn’t think of this sooner) these comments about Sergei Kostitsyn were probably some of the funniest I’ve ever heard: “I think he is not Belarussian now, he is French because I never fight with Belarussian guys. I don’t know why he wants to fight with me. If he wants to fight, we’ll go in the street and every minute of every day I’ll wait for him and we’ll fight.” Oh Grabovski…
7) Chris Higgins’ hat trick versus the Sens early in the season. What can I say, he’s my favourite player and the rest of the team gave a great showing that night as well.
8) Kovalev returning after his “vacation”. I was really scared that Kovalev would be gone, after watching L’Antichambre, where Michel Bergeron said he could never come back after that embarrassment. I was angry at the Habs. I was angry at the media. I was just angry in general. But thankfully he came back, and it made me really happy, and I think it made most of Montreal happy too. Kovalev may have off days, but he is the talent and one of the prominent leaders of our team. Without him, we’d be lost.
9) I know this has little to do with the Habs, but it has to do with Montreal, and I was there, so I thought I’d include it anyway: The Skills Competition. Ovechkin’s skills competition get-up was really funny, and was made funnier by the fact that it was Malkin, his alleged enemy, who dressed him up. But the real hilarity came from Mark Streit, who when skating, tripped over a wooden triangular blocker, smashing into a million wood chips and falling to the floor himself. He was okay after thankfully but it was just really funny, especially watching it again afterwards, since they were filming his face, and all of the sudden he was gone!
10) Last but not least, I think I need to include Marty Brodeur’s win a couple of weeks ago. Again, it wasn’t a great achievement for us, but seeing Brodeur tie Roy’s record with Roy in the crowd was really an emotional experience. It was also special since Brisebois played his 1000th game that night. Speaking of Roy, his jersey retirement should probably have a place on this list too.
So there you have it: my ten favourite moments of the season. This season has been full of ups and downs, and next year I fear we’ll be seeing a very different team… I really hope not, but re-signing that many free agents will be difficult.
I’m not bitter about this season or angry… It’s tough to win when most of your team is in the infirmary instead of on the ice. It’s also tough when rumours are spread, when players get suspended and when they are linked to gang members. This centennial season may not have lived up to everyone’s expectations. But hey, at least we can say it was interesting.
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