Canadiens Clinch!

The Canadiens have clinched a spot in the playoffs! The earliest they have clinched in many many years, and currently the ONLY team assured a spot.

Will the 3rd period mini collapse hurt or help the team?

With no games until Friday the Habs can rest comfortably. Having assured their spot before the 4 day lay off was a big accomplishment.

The Habs have 5 games left and can control their own destiny. They are in an excellent position to go on and win the Division and Eastern Conference titles.

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61 Comments

#1 Don Carnage says:
March 27, 2008 at 9:41 pm

Of course it is and its a good idea to play the players that have not had much ice time, while letting some others get a little rest and also avoid maybe some mishap.. but dont expect some people around here to ever let the real coach make the call, of course not we need to act as if we know better .

#2 Joseph says:
March 27, 2008 at 9:42 pm

Thanks, Ice Man. My condolescences to your wife’s Leafs. It must have been difficult seeing them trying to move the puck up ice with the goaltender out, in one final, fruitless attempt at salvaging yet another fruitless season.

#3 Don Carnage says:
March 27, 2008 at 9:43 pm

On the up side Leafs lost to the Bruins thats a win win for Montreal , it holds Washington in check and it make this year all that much sweeter .. watching the Leafs self implode and fizzle out

#4 hablifer says:
March 27, 2008 at 11:16 pm

we’re now in 2nd place overall. We need to win both games this weekend.

#5 hablifer says:
March 27, 2008 at 11:21 pm

Here’s an interesting fact. The caps, bruins and flyers could be tied at the end of the regular season. I hope the caps don’t get in. they’re playing great hockey right now. much more dangerous than the flyers or bruins.
I’ll take the flyers.

#6 h4life says:
March 28, 2008 at 11:21 am

Look at the message posted on TSN.ca following Leaf’s hopeless to Playoff. LOL

No. 20 Author: habsfanlaurie

My husband is a Leafs fan, I am a huge Habs fan so this is good news for our marriage! I’ll just have to avoid him for the next few hours and all will be good in our house again!

#7 Joseph says:
March 28, 2008 at 1:15 pm

Washington doesn’t concern me as much as they seem to concern some others here. After all, how often do you see a team play its’ hearts out for over a month this time of year just to get in, and then fade quickly in the playoffs? And even if they did manage to play their way in and continue that high level of play for an extended time, I still have enough faith in the Habs to be able to handle them. (Edmonton of two years ago was a much different story than Washington of 2008.)

That being said, we could realistically face Ottawa in the first round, so who knows.

#8 Ice Man says:
March 28, 2008 at 2:39 pm

I’d give my Left Nut for Montreal to win the Cup and Price win the MVP.

#9 Senet 1 says:
March 28, 2008 at 7:11 pm

Joseph, I guess for once I disagree with you, i think Washington is the most dangerous team out there this year. They not only have the best goal scorer in the leage but it seems that we cannot figure out how to stop him. He has killed us when we play them. It all boils down to we have been luck against teams that cannot skate with us and teams that can skate with us seem to have the super stars that can put the puck in the net. Having said that I said last week we would find a way to beat Ottawa and we did albeit not pretty in the end. So hopefully our coaches that in my opinion are the best in the league and getting better, can devise a defensive way of neutralizing the Caps big scoring line.

#10 Senet 1 says:
March 28, 2008 at 7:12 pm

Oh yes, and don’t forget the Huet factor, we will have to make him handle the puck alot so he can pass it to our forwards.

#11 Warren says:
April 2, 2008 at 5:33 pm

Washington could squeek in now with Huet getting his 7th win last night.That would be a wild first round opponent for the Habs!!
The Habs are flying with Carbo and Gainey at the helm!! Let the games begin!!

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goalie : Didn't get to see the game at all but it's great to see Pacs get a hat trick and fpor Cole to be + 3. When was the last time this team won three games in a row? Great victory -looks like they're giving 100% effort!
Senet1 : 4-2 win habs
Senet1 : Gomez scores, Yea!!!
goalie : As I said yesterday it will be interesting to see what our lame ass GM gets for players he ships out. Bourque is good and he'll help us but I still think we could have gotten more for him and for Halak when he was traded.
Avatar37 : round those picks occur (probably 3rd).
Avatar37 : An interesting article. If we slip to the 5th or 7th draft pick, a very interesting case could be made for drafting Galchenyuk. If we wind up with the second or third pick, I'm not sure who I'd draft, because clearly Yakupov is going to be drafted first overall. Our second round pick also becomes interesting, I know I'd take Vasilevski if he were still available. It will also be interesting to see if we can turn some of our veteran players (Moen, Gill, Campoli) into draft picks, and what
Avatar37 : «link»
Avatar37 : That is why PG should have waited on trading Cammalleri. Right now, there is a high demand for a top 6 forward, we could have gotten much more than Bourque in return. That isn't a knock against Bourque, but a knock against a knee-jerk reaction trade that didn't maximize our return on a top asset.
Avatar37 : «link»
Avatar37 : chips fall where they may. After all, the only difference between finishing 17th and 29th is how good a pick you get in the draft.
Avatar37 : We currently sit in 26th place in the league. We are 15 points ahead of Columbus, it's safe to bet at this point they will place last. We are, however, only 4 points ahead of Edmonton so it's still wide open as to who is going to finish second last. I still think that it's time to sit the veterans, play the youth, let them get experience, and regroup for next year. I'm not suggesting deliberately tanking like the Penguins, but give all our young players lots of playing time and let the c
Avatar37 : goalie - If it were not for the play of Cammalleri, we would never have made it out of round 1. Cammalleri played as big a part, if not bigger, than Halak did. Sure, Halak played well, but remember the team collapsed in front of him, making his job much easier. We had lots of blocked shots and the ones that got through were typically from the outside.
Senet1 : Goalie you are absolutely right, of course the one thing we had the two previous years that won the games that we are losing this year was our power play. If you look at say 10 games that we should have won had we had a similar power play, again we would not be having these conversations. When your PP goes from first to last in the league that is a lot of goals.How many games have we lost this year by one goal. Again poor management who did not prepare for Markov's possible absence.
goalie : I'll put it another way.... we need more players who are willing to get their noses dirty.
goalie : Two years ago when our goaltending stole series adn our players suddenly scored the coaches / GM believed that that was our true team . Well time has proven that was not. Though I was very glad to see the Habs knock off some very good teams we were very fortunate. And fortunate that spring was spelled HALAK!
goalie : The wrst mistake management could possibly make I believe is to say, we played well some games and we believe the team can play to that level more often in the future. This team CANNOT adnb DOES NOT play to a high enough level. Please do not kid yourself mamngement. hat is partially why we're in the lace we are.
goalie : Senet is correct when he says that if we had more games with a better efort this year we'd likely be in the playoffs. It has been very inconsistent effort but much more than that. We lack big, tough playing and finishing. Never mind fighting for a moment. We did not compete for the pucks nor along the boards nor in front of both nets enough this year. Thus we are in 29th. If the coaching staff doesn't see that then they shouldn't be there.
Senet1 : Surely Molson is not going to keep him as the GM?
Senet1 : when he knows he will be fired at the end of the season. Nothing really makes since in this whole process.
Senet1 : I am not sue why PG has not been fired by now. They could be waiting for another GM to come available at season end, but why would you not set up a committee to manage the team in the short run until a new GM can be named. There is no since in chaning coaches because whoever the GM is he will want to name his own coach. Gainey and a committe of other executives can manage the team through to the trading deadline and onward. What motivation does PG have to making any worthwhile trades when he is
Senet1 : I am too mch of a competitor to want my team to tank to. However, If these players played like they ae cabable of playing all year we would not be having this discussion right now, we woud be talking about the playoffs and who we would rather meet in the first round.
rocky : Exactly, and Senet nails it when he says we have not had an elite top 5 in the nhl player since lafleur.
goalie : I too want the Habs to get the best possible draft this June. We all need SOME hope!
rocky : He is persona non grata in habville, and a ghost in every sense of the term.
goalie : It remains a miracle how we have heard from our mighty GM twice since Christmas - the trades involving Spacek and Cammy and those comments were extremely brief. PG just does not cut it in my world. Part of a GMs job is to go public from time to time. PG never does that in fact he's a ghost GM!
rocky : Its true, there is no honor in that. These guys have only known the ethic of giving it all to win every night. I do not want them to "tank", and they will never do that anyway. I do want them to lose though, as awful as it sounds.
goalie : Roicky as a good point. We all want the Habs to get a really good draft pick. However, players, coaches etc. also have a keen desire to compete and win. That's why they're playing at the pro level. Thus we can only hope that the team plays some good games and let the chips fall where they may. After the disasterous season we've had let's not lower ourselves adn get involved in any dscussions about 'tanking' games.
rocky : So long.
Senet1 : Good discussion rocky, I have to step out for an hour, but may be back later.
Senet1 : The only way this team comes back to a team with long term potential is to draft a game breaker. Even all the other bad teams have a Stamkos or a player like him. He have some good player so what we need is a Malkin that we can count on 80% of the time to win a game for us.
rocky : I mean winning will only do them harm that is.
rocky : It really hurts because my reflexes make me want to cheer like mad, but it will only hurt the team now.
Senet1 : Yes I have mixed feeling when watching the game. Last night I say here we go again. with our record of shoot losses I did not expect to win that one. Yet I wanted to win real bad?????
rocky : God, so horrible to sit and hope for losses, but here we are.
Senet1 : Our problem is we play one out of every 4 games good and therefore, we play well enough to stay on the borderline of a top five pick. If we win three or four in a row we could take ourselves right out of the running.