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How do you remove the anxiety from a 7th game in a best-of-seven series? 5-0, that’s how.

There was tension in the first period, as it appeared that the only member of the Habs who came to play was Carey Price, but the second and third were pure domination.

Now the team and its fans have to wait until the completion of Tuesday’s penultimate game between the Flyers and Caps to see who we’ll see in the second round. If the Caps win, we get the Rangers. If the Flyers win, we get them.

I’ve been rooting for the Caps, because they’re an upstart team and Alex Ovechkin is a ton of fun to watch. Plus, Mr. Tony talks about them on the radio. But the easier second round matchup would certainly come as a result of a Flyers win.

The way I see it, though, the Habs are going to see the Rangers one way or another, so getting it out of the way now wouldn’t be a bad thing. I felt dirty the one time I had to root for the Flyers this season (in their final game, which decided the final Eastern Conference standings) so I don’t think I’ll be doing it again. Go Caps.

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My worst hockey nightmare came true. (No, wait, I suppose there could be worse than that, and we’ll see if it comes true in about 3 hours.) The Bruins, the team that the Habs had defeated something like eighteen straight times before the playoffs, came back from a 3-1 series deficit to force game seven. The Habs even had leads three different times in the game, including with less than ten minutes to go in the third.

Just terrible.

Once that happened, I was sure Georges “Rush” St-Pierre was certain to lose and make my night a complete weeper.

Thankfully his karma isn’t tied to mine, and he put an absolute beating on Matt Serra for nearly two rounds before referee Yves Lavigne had seen enough. During the last half of the second round the pattern was Serra turtling up and eating knees to the ribs and kidneys, then rolling onto his back and being ravaged by punches and elbows, then rolling back to suffer more knees. Finally GSP ratcheted up the intensity and the official saved Serra from sure internal trauma.

The Montreal crowd was insane. The Olé song, the chants, the cheering in all the right places, the unison yells of “knee!” when one fighter had another in good position for one, cheering good groundwork instead of the usual Vegas-type booing, all classic. The best North American MMA crowd ever by far, and topped off by them giving a raucous ovation to Matt Serra out of respect only minutes after attempting to boo him out of the building. Great stuff.

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I have clearly offended the hockey gods. Every team I was rooting for tonight lost.

The Capitals? Conquered.

The Flames? Extinguished.

The Wild? Tamed.

Most horrible of all was the Habs’ game. The object of my manly affection, Carey Price, looked not only like a mortal, but he looked like a rookie mortal. The series is now 3-2, and the Bruins have all the momentum and the next home game. Oh yes, I am nervous now.

Tags: Sports, Hockey // 1 Comment »