Canadiens channel spirit of 1993 as they march onward

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On Monday night, the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Buffalo Sabres 3-2 in overtime, and advance to the Eastern Conference final. Few teams make it harder on themselves, and fewer still make it more fun to watch.

Montreal controlled the game from the off and scored a couple of quick ones. In what felt like a sign, the first Montreal goal was deflected off a skate in the crease.

When a similar thing happened to the Sabres in the 1999 final, it was illegal (but uncalled). Nowadays, it’s fine. Midway through the third, a Buffalo goal was whistled dead before it could be pushed over the line. It must often feel to Buffalonians that all of their sporting juju is bad.

Had Montreal continued to press for the entire game, it might have been a walkover. Certainly, the crowd had given up after the first. But as teams always do, the Canadiens gradually shifted from attackers to defenders. It’s a bad idea against anyone in November. It’s a really bad idea in a Game 7 in May.

By the time the third period began, the Sabres could have set up a coffee station in the Montreal end. The final minutes of regulation were frantic.

In the early overtime going, the Canadiens hit the side netting and a post. The winner was scored by the Newfoundlander, Alex Newhook - the same guy who scored the winner in Game 7 against Tampa Bay.

Up next, the Carolina Hurricanes – a team that plays more like a bunch of guys who do MMA together than a hockey team. They don’t beat you. They submit you.

The pressure on the Canadiens has been tipping into the red zone for weeks. There are no instruments sensitive enough to detect any pressure on the Hurricanes. It’s not clear if a majority of residents of Raleigh know they have a hockey team, especially when a couple of hours to the west, it’s only two months until the start of NFL training camp.

In Buffalo, the Canadiens faced a team very like themselves - young, fast, doesn’t know what it doesn’t know. That resulted in a series of highly entertaining sloppiness. This was hockey so loose it required buttoning, featuring big emotional swings from game to game. That both clubs were new to this was obvious.

In Carolina, the Canadiens will face maybe the most regimented line-up in the NHL. The Hurricanes don’t do anything with panache, but they do do it.

Montreal’s biggest advantage may be the usual inability of NHL schedulers to get any of this done in good time. The Hurricanes will have had 10 days off when their series with Montreal begins. They may have to be reminded which way to face their stick blades.

For Montreal fans, we’re already into bonus hockey. Everyone thought this team was good, but even the die-hards didn’t think they’d get by Tampa Bay in the first round. That was especially true after the officials began egging on the Lightning in nightly pursuit of the most affordable cheap shots.

For every Canadian hockey fans outside Quebec, it’s time to have that conversation with yourself - am I going to give in?

Are you or are you not putting your team loyalty to one side in order to cheer on the only Canadian team that seems to have it together any more? And if so, do you tell people, or do you do it in secret?

We’ve now gone 32 seasons without a Canadian team lifting the Stanley Cup. Since that’s how many teams there are in the NHL, someone should have done it by accident now.

As far as issues facing the nation goes, a sports victory doesn’t matter. But it’s kind of starting to.

It speaks to a particular sort of Canadian malaise that may have been distantly felt a decade ago ago, but given the situation down south, has suddenly become an acute pain. This is a country that has trouble getting things done. If we can’t win a trophy that we created, what does that say about us?

The irony is that as the time without a breakthrough extends, and the pressure to do so increases, the likelihood of that breakthrough appears to be receding. The NHL may be the only league in the world that features a home-field disadvantage.

You wouldn’t say the Canadiens are in a good position to break the streak. As it stands now, they’re in a terrible position to do so. Were they to win a Cup, they’d have gone through Tampa, Buffalo, Carolina and, at a guess, Colorado. For very different reasons, those may be the four most daunting teams in this year’s postseason.

When you look back on ’93 - the year Patrick Roy won the Stanley Cup and there were other guys in red and blue there, too - that was a series of fortunate misses. They could’ve got Ray Bourque and Boston, but got Buffalo instead. Then they could’ve faced Mario Lemieux and the Penguins, but lucked in the New York Islanders. Then they could’ve faced the Maple Leafs … ha ha, just kidding. They did have to get past Wayne Gretzky and the L.A. Kings in the final.

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Goalie Jakub Dobes hasn’t been Roy, but he hasn’t had to be, and there is still time to do so. If the young Czech wins seven more overtime games en route to a championship, he’ll match Roy’s 1993 record.

Put it this way, were the Canadiens to win this year, it might be the most unlikely Stanley Cup victory since Roy & Co. did it all those decades ago.

It’s never right to cheer for a team other than your own. If you’re going to do that, you might as well wear a referee’s sweater whenever you’re watching a game. You are at best, a neutral, and at worst, a front runner. Even in the midst of a national cultural emergency, there is no excuse for front running.

Also, Montreal doesn’t want you. Their bandwagon has been full since the beginning of the ‘20s. The 1920s.

But it is permissible to put this in terms of self-interest. Because if Montreal can manage this, whatever wretched club you root for has no excuses.