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 The Montreal Canadiens celebrate a second-period goal against the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Bell Centre in Montreal on April 10, 2010. (ERIC BOLTE/QMI Agency) |
MONTREAL -- As the clock ticked off the final seconds of regulation at the Bell Centre Saturday night, the crowd started to roar.
A tie - against a last-place team, in this case the Toronto Maple Leafs - has probably never been so lustily cheered here.
Guaranteed a point and a playoff spot at that point, the organ ground out “Les Canadiens Sont La,” and the Canadiens will be there in the playoffs, guaranteed another four games this season, anyway.
The Habs went on to lose 4-3 in overtime to the Leafs on Dion Phaneuf’s overtime goal and that beep, beep, beep, that could be heard from the Bell Centre was the Canadiens getting a post-season berth in full reverse.
“I want to know what the Molson beer sales were after the third period. I want to know if everybody went and had themselves a cocktail. They loosened right up,” said Canadiens winger Mike Cammalleri, who, like the rest of the Habs, felt the vibe from the crowd as the siren sounded to end regulation time. “The fans are so aware here, they’re so in tune with their team. You sense everything from them. You sense tension, you sense happiness, you sense disappointment, you sense all these emotions. It’s very different from any other building that way because they are so aware.”
The Canadiens were pretty close to sensing a little different vibe from the locals.
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The Canadiens finished the season with 39-33-10 record for 88 points and can still finish seventh or eighth in the conference, depending on the outcome of Sunday’s Philadelphia Flyers-New York Rangers game. A Flyers win and the Habs will finish eighth. If the Rangers win they will tie the Habs with 88 points and both teams will have 40 wins, but the Habs will get seventh on the strength of winning the season series.
The Canadiens could still face the Washington Capitals, the New Jersey Devils or the Buffalo Sabres. The Sabres are in New Jersey Sunday and with a regulation win, the Sabres will finish second in the conference.
Got all that?
The Canadiens limp into the post-season having won only three of their last 11 games.
“Who cares? You can’t live in the past,” said Cammalleri. “You learn from the past and you live in the present, right? Here we are getting ready for the playoffs.”
Montreal goaltender Jaroslav Halak, who had been so strong for them down the stretch, winning the number one job from Carey Price, had a less than spectacular finish to the season, winning just three of his last eight starts. He was suspect on both the goals scored by Toronto’s Christian Hanson, one when he made a bad decision to come out of the net in the first period - which tied the game 1-1 - and the other in the third period when Hanson’s weak backhander while shorthanded beat him to the long side to tie the game 3-3.
Despite that, the Canadiens got their point and now their fans can watch and see if Tiger Woods can get a green jacket to go with the black mark against his name rather than fixate on the outcome of the Flyers-Rangers game.
“You get in and you go from there,” said Canadiens winger Brian Gionta, who scored his team-leading 28th goal Saturday night. “You regroup, regardless of what kind of momentum you have. You have four or five days to think about it and match up with your opponent. I think the biggest thing for us was to get in and now I like our chances. If we play consistent and we play hard, I think we’ll be alright. We played fairly well against the top teams in the East and hopefully that brings out the best in us.”
And turns off that beep, beep, beep noise.
chris.stevenson@sunmedia.ca