Fasten your seat belts folks......

I’m a nervous wreck, I’m stressed at work, and I’m worried about my Habs. It’s all too much, thank God I’m going on vacation in a month, right around the time the boys should be in their first playoff round. I even bought a small flag to put outside our villa as a show of support; they’ll be out of sight but not far from my thoughts. I won’t be a happy camper if the flag has to stay home with the cats. I don’t know what to expect in the next few weeks, I don’t know if Bob Gainey knows either. People are suggesting that the team isn’t as good as we think, some use the word “overachieved.” So in a nutshell, twenty three players all “overachieved” last year, is that even possible? I'm not buying into that, there's still loads of talent on this team, it just needs to be used properly. Player’s performances can vary from season to season. Kovalev is a good example, historically he has a good season followed by a mediocre one, so realistically that could also affect his line mates’ performances. But how do we explain our lack of defense or the goaltending? Our defense, with the exception of Markov has been abysmal. Komisauraus has morphed into Barney, he may be hurt. Carey Price had a meltdown that could have rivaled Chernobyl but he's still in essence a rookie. The team as a whole is a shell of itself, however Murphy’s Law prevails; unfortunately the only consistent player is Chris Higgins, he still can't hit the back of the net for love nor money. Injuries have played a major role and wreaked havoc with the lines; we’ve seen more combinations than a Chinese dinner menu. I’m going with Bob’s theory that Carbo’s misuse of players in certain situations coupled with his lack of defining roles has sucked the confidence and any possible chance of chemistry right out of this team. One thing for sure is the individual talent is still there and that’s a good foundation to build on, but two very big questions still remain, does he have enough time to rebuild this team into a competitor and was Carbo to blame? As Bob himself said, the answers will only be apparent in the next thirty days. In the meantime we wait, we hope and we pray.

Just a little add on…..
I was yakking on about the Habs the other night (as usual) to my poor other half who just grins and bears it (God bless him) and tries to make an effort to appear interested. “Can you believe that some of the idiotic French media would put language first over winning a championship?” “Are you kidding me” he quips, "they put language in front of the economy in 1976.” Good point dear, how silly of me.