Both recipes are excellent, and the pizza is a fantastic meal for two (with a slice or two left over for lunch the next day).

So here was the good stuff about the game: the Habs are skating again.  They skated around the Flyers all night, and outplayed them in every department, other than goaltending.  The crowd was going again also - in Game 1 of the series the crowd was somewhat subdued.  Perhaps this had to do with the riots along Ste. Catherine street (not actually fans by the way),  but more likely after a brutal seven game series against the Bruins the fans were probably a little drained.And the obvious bad news (apart from the loss) was the goal tending.  I’m not going to harp on about Carey Price in either direction - he’s not the second coming of Christ, and he’s not immature.  Instead I’m going to say this: his biggest critic will be himself.  He was screened for the first goal, the second goal took a deflection, and he needs to know that when that sort of stuff happens (which it will) he can be assured that the offense will get a couple of goals back.  And that is what didn’t happen on Saturday night.I can’t remember if the Canadiens outshot the flyers 34-20 or 44-20, it doesn’t really matter - they need to score.  For sure Biron (in spite of the crowd, who were on his back at every chance) had a good game, but we can’t rely on winning 1-0 or 2-0 every game.  I’ll say it again - Carey Price won’t shut out every single team, every single game.  So we need the scorers to score. Despite the loss it was a fantastic experience.  It would have been better, for sure, if they had won, but the atmosphere and the crowd reminds you that Montreal is the greatest place on Earth to watch a hockey game,  and for me, even if Les Canadiens don’t get beyond the second round (although I think we will) 2008 will be a memorable playoff year.

Don’t get me wrong - I don’t think Higgins had a bad game - there were a number of Habs’ players that had much worse games on Sunday - Thomas Plekanec admitted to playing “like a little girl” (his words not mine) but I thought the Canadiéns looked lethargic in the 3rd period, and I can’t say that I blame them all that much.  I picked game 3 to be the one that Montréal lost - it was the first game in Boston, 24 hours after Saturday’s game, and traveling in-between. Unfortunately I was right.

Yesterday’s game was something quite different.  Fast, exciting, and tight.  Although after Sunday’s game I thought Carbo should sit Brisebois, I’ve never really understood the constant criticism of him, but he proved us all wrong last night by scoring an absolute ripper of a goal past Fleurry.  Last night wasn’t about the one goal that seperated the two teams however, it was all about the twenty-seven shots-on-goal that the Habs’ goalie, Carey Price, faced and stopped.

Here’s a guy, thrust into playoffs at 20 years old, playing in front of huge crowds and he won the game for the Candiens last night. Don’t get me wrong - when you’ve got talent, you’ve got talent, but Montréal’s legacy of Ken Dryden and Patrick Roy makes this team a bit of a pressure cooker for goalies and #31 just doesn’t seem to notice.  I know that you could point to other young sensations like Wayne Rooney, Sidney Crosby, and the like, but really a hockey goaltender is a different thing.  A goaltender in hockey is always in the limelight.  Fortunately for Montréal, Carey Price soaks it up and gets the job done.  I criticized Carey Price in a previous blog entry for being a bit too lax at times when he plays the puck, and I do think that it could cause us problems, but it doesn’t change the fact that he is proving himself to be the real deal.

Anyway, the Canadiens can wrap up this series back home at the Bell Centre tomorrow night which means Montréal will be rocking tomorrow night.  Let’s get win number four of sixteen done and dusted…

While Carey Price looks solid and confident in goal one thing about his game worries me.  When he plays the puck he has a tendency to sit back and admire his work - a couple of times a Boston forechecker came dangerously close to winning the puck and catching Carey out of his goal, and it’s bound to happen sooner or later.  He needs to get back between the pipes faster….

Still, the win is the thing and the Habs going 2-0 up in the series makes me happy - my cat jumped out of his seat at my celebrations with Kovalev’s winning goal.

Coming back to Canada has taught me a lot about myself (I have a post that I’ve been drafting for the last 3 months about this fact.  I must get around to finishing it), and one thing that I’m loving is being back in Montréal for is the hockey.  Montréal is a lot like Newcastle in England I suppose.  Other cities have more than one team to support, and sometimes in North America, more than one sport.  In Montréal it is just Les Canadiens, and oh my how it matters.  Katrien and I were in town to watch the game with some friends, and I think having experienced just a single game of the playoffs in Montréal Katrien is only now starting to truly understand how important the Canadiens are to our city and it’s people.  Like so many others in the city, I grew up supporting the Canadiens but having lived away from Montréal for so long I’d forgotten how much they meant to me.

As Katrien remarked, Montréal during the playoffs is similar in feel to the World Cup in England with flags flying from cars to buildings, and everybody talking about the games.  Of course the fun on Thursday started fairly early (we left work at six and went to the bar via the Bell Centre - the home of the Canadiens) but it really got going 38 seconds into the game when Sergei Kostitsyn scored the first goal for Montréal.  Things only got crazier from there and by the time the game was won the city was in full swing.

As we left the bar and walked past the Bell Centre back to the car we got caught up in the impromptu party that had  started.  Boulevard René-Lévesque was one constant horn-honking traffic jam, and all over the city people were singing, dancing and enjoying the night.

The radio phone-in shows are euphoric,  everybody is in a good mood, and while it’s only the first game in the series and there is still a long way to go each game is going to get crazier and crazier.

The Canadiens have banners outside the Bell Centre talking about how there is only 16 games to win in order to get the city’s 25th Stanley cup - I think Katrien, myself, and Montreal’s other 3 million or so inhabitants are all going to be counting that down together.  Only fifteen to more now - Go Habs Go!

Edit: here is a youtube video of the goals and highlights of last night, of special joy are the hits by Steve Bégin and Roman Hamrlík.

Thanks Chris!

Is there something I’m missing?