Anaelle Jutras-Plante
Many Quebeckers gathered around their screens in awe last year when at last noticing their local team, the Montreal Canadiens. For fans of the team, or for people who follow hockey, you could have noticed that the team had had a pretty regular season, but managed to catch the public’s eye when they started winning. That's when people saw hope for bringing the Stanley Cup home.
Last year, the pandemic hit hard for many of us but the Montreal Canadiens' success in the playoffs was a well-deserved moment of joy in the midst of a global crisis. Many Quebeckers and fans gathered around their TVs, cheering for their favourite players, rooting for our team. It was a unique feeling, to see people wearing the “bleu, blanc, rouge” colours, seeing the team on everyone’s television, all over the internet, as well as hearing them on the radio.
Watching the playoffs was a truly special feeling; watching “our” team unfold and play in a way we had failed to see yet. Overtime wins, crazy saves, and spectacular comebacks were all a major part of the crazy ride the Montreal Canadiens took us on in the last playoffs. As we watched Danault eat pizza on our screen on our national holiday; la Saint-Jean, we all simultaneously shared the victory with our fellow Habs.
Even if the playoffs did not end in the ultimate victory, they ended with a sense of pride and happiness for the team that showed that they were not to be underestimated.
The hype for the Montreal Canadiens quickly faded away when the playoffs were gone and the Montreal Canadiens didn’t seem so “spectacular” anymore. With the temporary loss of Carey Price and Shea Weber, the team took a hard hit losing their star goaltender and Captain. But they weren’t the only ones who left, notably Tomas Tatar, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Philip Danault, and Corey Perry also left the team at the beginning of the season. Early in the year, the Montreal Canadiens also took the decision to fire many of their employees such as their General Manager Marc Bergevin and their head coach Dominic Ducharme. There has also been some talk of exchanging Josh Anderson and Jeff Petry, some of the key players during the playoffs and present season of Montreal’s team. As of March 30th, the Montreal Canadians have 10 players on the injured list and just recently traded Brett Kulak, Ben Chiarot, Arturri Lehkonen, and Tyler Toffoli to respectively; the Edmonton Oilers, the Florida Panthers, the Colorado Avalanche all in March, and to the Calgary Flyers in February.
With the arrival of Martin St-Louis, the fans have had a little spark of hope seeing their team start to thrive mildly again. The team started winning some games and we got to observe Cole Caufield become the Goal Caufield we had grown to know. While this is a pleasant sentiment and we love to see the smile on our team’s face during victories, we also have to understand that the team is under reconstruction. But not only do we need to understand that, but we also need to understand that they weren’t the “star” team seen in the playoffs last year, they were a regular team. A regular team filled with promising players and an organization that seeks to become a greater one. But success takes time and we must be patient with the Canadiens and stand beside them through this growth. Because true fans do not change favourites when their team loses, they stand beside the players through the highs and lows. Let’s allow the Montreal Canadiens learn and evolve so that in a few years, we can come back prospering and finish the job we had started in the playoffs last year. Just see it as the round against the Maple Leafs, we needed those losses and moments of despair in order to reconstruct and come back blazing. Hockey originated in Montreal, and we’ll bring it back home.
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Pictures:
Hall. V. (2021, Jun 25th). “We’re not satisfied”: Canadiens enjoy improbable, fairy-tale run to the Stanley Cup final. CBC; Sports-NHL.
Engels. E. (2021, May 12). Canadiens happy to put regular season to rest, recharge for playoffs. Sportsnet; NHL.
Clipperton. J. (2021, May 27). Canadiens bounce back after blowing 3-goal lead to stun Leafs in OT. CBC; Sports-NHL.
Info:
2022 STATS LLC STATS. (...) Montreal Canadiens Injures. TSN; Hockey.
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