Habs long range forecast......sunny

I really like what I'm seeing this year with our new Habs.  I thought they would have been blown out of the water by the Pens, but they looked pretty respectable out there.  Jacques Martin used the KISS principle for his game plan (keep it simple stupid) try to keep it at 0-0 for as long as possible and try to catch a break. Simple and pretty effective for the most part, if we had capitalized on a couple of scoring chances the outcome could have been a win or at least a tie. 

I'm getting a sense that this team believes they have a chance of winning regardless of the opponent.  Reminds me a little of the 1980's U.S.A. Olympic team, Jacques Martin must be doing a fine impression of Herb Brooks in the dressing room, whatever Jacques is telling the boys, they're buying into and believing. 

The advantage is having a lot of young players, some of whom are playing their first NHL games.  They're not jaded, seasoned veterans who know their limitations, quite the contrary, when I watch them play I believe anything is possible too.

Last season, when we were booted out of the playoffs in four straight by Boston, one of our players commented that they knew they had no chance against the Bruins.  If that's your belief system, it becomes reality. 

I now know why Bob Gainey cleaned house.  As much as I loved Koivu, Kovy etc.  there's no way they could have been successful under Jacques Martin and especially not with all these injuries.  Koivu just doesn't have the stamina anymore to play punishing minutes, Kovy never seemed to have a sense of urgency and I doubt he ever will.

The early return of Markov is great news, Hammer and Spacek have both been heroic, there's no point in a healthy Markov if the rest of our D is on burnout leave.

We still haven't seen this team play to it's true potential and so far it hasn't been too shabby, exciting times ahead;  the best is yet to come.  I believe, do you?


Last note:  I received an email from Ryan Stotland the other day.  He is a big Habs fan and he's doing a 12,000 km bike ride for charity in South America.  Please click this link if you haven't seen this yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDFLjsvG0AI