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Playoff predictions?


dave-O

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TORONTO (Apr. 6) -- Please excuse me for having some difficulty with those who refer to the up-coming Montreal at Toronto regular-season finale in "classic" terms. Yes, as a potential winner-take-all battle for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference, there will be a level of excitement and intrigue at the Air Canada Centre, but any person that equates this game with the fabled Maple Leafs-Canadiens rivalry of the 1940s and 1960s is going way overboard. In the hyped-up sports world in which we live, however, you can bet such comparisons will be flowing off the laptops and tongues of media poets until the moment the puck is dropped. We'll be inundated with stories of the great battles of yesteryear, and how this game ranks so significantly because the teams have not met in the Stanley Cup tournament since 1979. Don't let 'em fool you, folks.

Saturday night's "classic" is actually a convergence of two desperate teams that are stuck in the mud... neither of which has seemed at all capable of closing the deal. The Leafs' attack has fizzled this week in the scoring absence of Mats Sundin (no goals in the past 11 games) and if the Canadiens didn't have a powerplay this season, they'd be battling Florida and Boston for the No. 12 and 13 spots in the East. It's incredible how Montreal's standards have plummeted since 1993, when the club won its last Stanley Cup. Though I covered the Leafs' brutal effort on Long Island Thursday night, I kept one eye on a TV in the Nassau Coliseum pressbox showing the Canadiens-Rangers game from Madison Square Garden. And, all I could think of was how proud, former Habs like Jean Beliveau, Guy Lafleur, John Ferguson, Ralph Backstrom, Serge Savard, Larry Robinson and others would cringe to see their team perform so aimlessly in such a critical circumstance. The only connection between this club and its wondrous predecessors is the logo on the front of the jersey.

So, the Leafs and Canadiens clash for the final post-season berth in the Conference. Maybe. Given the Islanders' ability to rebound in a timely and impressive fashion from losing their No. 1 goalie at the most inopportune point of the season, perhaps justice will be served by Ted Nolan's crew winning its final two games on the weekend, and knocking Toronto AND Montreal out of the playoffs. It's a long-shot, but it certainly wouldn't be unjust, given how weakly the pre-expansion legends have played with their seasons on the line. For anyone to even think that Saturday's game is a clash of titans is pure delusion. A fantasy in the absence of any meaningful reality. It is simply a convenient quirk in the schedule between a pair of staggering teams that have shown no willingness or ability to go for the kill. Choke may be too harsh a term, but not overly so.

http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog.php?post_id=6648

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Howard Berger is a fucking idiot. He talks about the Islanders losing their number one goalie at an "the most inopportune point of the season". What about Montreal you fucktard?

They have a 7 and 3 record in their last 10 games. Hardly a record for a team "stuck in the mud" right now. No one here is comparing this to old school hockey and the 3 articles I have read havent. Those days are long gone Harold so quit fucking whinning about what people are not saying.

What a tool of a quote. I guess it takes one to post one. Its not a clash of the titans. It is a clash of bitter rivals and a dream for any REAL Canadian hockey fan.

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Guest Low Roller

The best part about the Leafs and the Habs meeting in a winner-take-all Saturday evening classic: I get to watch it.

THANK YOU ILLEGAL INTERNET CABLE TV FEED!

420px-Thumbs_up.jpg

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Guest Low Roller

POG, if you want to watch the game then go to Sopcast.com, download the P2P software, and find the channel with the game on it.

Whatever happens in the third, the last three weeks have been incredibly exciting to follow. Go Habs Go!

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