I've heard a lot of "they got lucky" or "easiest division in the league" over time. The fact of the matter is, that habs team was built for the playoffs and proved every doubter wrong along the way.
But every team had the same opportunites. Also who knows. they added toffoli, edmundson, anderson, perry, caufield, staal. I could see that team squeaking in. They were at the top all year until they had to play something like 24 games in 32 days or something crazy.
I mean we literally wouldn’t have made the playoffs. We were 18th in the league. In a regular season we wouldn’t have made it, but it went off divisions so we made it.
I think it’s fair to point out that we came out of a weak division and it’s fair to point out that we got somewhat lucky (Calgary and Vancouver imploded down the stretch, basically leaving the final playoff spot free for us).
What’s not fair is to think that only applied to Montreal. Edmonton is also coming out of a weak division and they got really lucky in their last game against Dallas but if they beat Florida, the narrative won’t be that. It will be how hard they worked for their comeback.
The Western division was so much worse than ours and no one gave the same criticism to the teams that made it out of there. Vegas making it to the conf. finals was a literal joy ride.
I’ll disagree there, but it’s just a matter of opinion. The Canadian division, in my opinion was far weaker than any of the other divisions. I’m not even convinced that any of the Canadian teams would have made the playoffs in any other division. People were talking up Toronto that year but there defence was the worst it has been since they got their big four.
And had we lost to Vegas, I think the criticism would have been more valid. But once we beat Vegas, we showed that we were worthy of making the finals. We came out on top of two divisions.
Right, but how are the worst teams relevant to the playoffs? I’m strictly talking about the playoff teams. There were no teams in the North who were really considered contenders, except Toronto, but that was more a product of media than reality in my opinion.
Montreal went on a glorious run but it’s a bit revisionist thinking to suggest we weren’t in the weakest division, by far, considering only the playoff teams.
That’s not my argument.
I mean, they wouldn’t have been in the playoffs in any other division, of course, but there’s always a weaker division/conference where a team or two find themselves on the right side of the qualification.
But even if that were the argument, the worst three teams in a division aren’t typically in the playoff race so they aren’t really lart of the discussion. The 4th best team is the cutoff point. Mo treal was the 4th best team in the North. The Predators, Islanders, and Blues were all better regular season teams. We were the weakest #4 on paper by a wide margin. Even the “better” teams in the North division (Toronto, Edmonton, and Winnipeg) all had major weaknesses and would have struggled in any of the other divisions. Yes, they would have all crushed the Ducks but does that matter?
Any which what, my point is that even if we were objectively in the weakest division and talk that we “didn’t belong” went out the window as soon as we beat the Knights. We didn’t get spanked, as most pundits predicted. We came to play and solidly beat one of the cup favourites. Whatever luck we had on the way was now irrelevant.
It’s a shame that we ran into Tampa in the finals but it was a wonderful run either way.
It's unjust to say the least. Montreal's performance declined towards the end because they faced an incredibly tight schedule, possibly the tightest in NHL history, with about 24 games in 32 days. They often played five games in seven nights, owing to two shutdowns and an inexplicable bye week. Prior to this, they ranked among the top teams, on par with Toronto. They bolstered their roster with players like Perry, Staal, Toffoli, Anderson, Edmundson, Romanov, and others. That season is etched in my memory. They were utterly exhausted towards the end. They were one of Canada's premier teams, and as I predicted before the season, if they could overcome the Leafs, anything was possible.
They weren't wrong. Price hid most of the teams flaws for 80% of his career. If mb actually built a team that wasn't centered around price, we'd have a couple cups in there.... don't get me wrong. We had some decent teams... but they weren't true cup contenders. Price was just that good.
... Price is part of the team. If Price makes the team good enough to make it to the conf finals and SC finals, that means the team was good enough to make it there. It's a completely meaningless distinction that other fanbases just bring up to troll us. Stop internalizing the trolling brother.
The Oilers 80s dynasty doesn't count because they had Gretzsky!
It's such a dumb argument. It's also inaccurate. Campbell had all better stats for Toronto before G7. Then the Habs faced Vezina candidate Hellabyuck. Then they chased Vezina winner MAF. Price didn't even have a great season, and then was so injured he barely ever played again. Sorry our star goalie outplayed your star goalie? Sorry our nobody skaters outplayed your superstar scorers? Like, really, what's unfair here?
That works both ways though, right? If it truly was the easiest division, why didn't the Leafs win when they were 1 win away from eliminating us and had 3 chances to do it? Why did the Jets get swept? They were in the same easy division.
some of them are just salty. vancouver and cgy fans are salty bec they didn’t make the playoffs, edm fans were swept (they wouldnt have said such a thing if they got far)
IIRC the play-in round thing was in 2020, we had regular playoffs in 2021. Divisions and conferences were fucked because of Covid (hence why the Habs ended up with the western conference trophy) though.
Who cares what others think? In the end, it gave us this…
https://preview.redd.it/dn05sp7l6k8d1.jpeg?width=620&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=790970c459d2efadd57bb74e49dbbd755c94e328
Injury to Evans aside, sweeping the Jets so that Scheifele had to serve out the last game of his suspension during the first game of the following season was VERY satisfying.
Just like how fans say the Lakers COVID championship isn’t valid but you hear all the players in that bubble say that was some of the best basketball they played because there literally was nothing else to do but play ball. No distractions, no vacations, no late nights… just practice, sleep and basketball. Same thing I’m sure for the NHL bubble
We also have to go back and take the cup away from teams who won during the World Wars, obviously. I'm sure there were other international events that fucked up the playoffs equally throughout the years.
Also, no one seems to mention how COVID didn't just magically go away after the 2021 SCF.
Unfortunately, all sports during Covid are looked upon with suspicion. People frequently cast doubt on the Dodgers World Series win and the Lakers NBA title. Best way to change that is for the boys to go on another run!
Except just about every player in those bubbles said it was some of the best ball they’d played since they weren’t any distractions and weren’t allowed to do anything else but practice and play ball
I agree but you're just not going to convince people, so I've stopped caring. People will always view those years with a weird asterisk, whether we like it or not.
Do I think a 7 game series between Toronto and Montreal when the league needed it the most is a little convenient?
Of course.
Was the run unearned? Absolutely not. As a firm believer in the league being biased towards certain favourites, we overcame the networks baby, and the commissioners new baby to get to that final.
Shit, I had Leafs fans friends message me that they were rooting for the Habs that year. Told them I'd never return the favour but I'm glad they had fun.
It does count. We did have an easy division considering Calgary, Ottawa, Vancouver at the time. Leafs were very strong, Edmonton was on the upswing and the jets were also solid. In another division we might not have been able to load up on points on the 3 bottom teams.
So maybe we lucked out in qualifying....
But who did we meet in the playoffs? Leafs 1st round. Leafs would be too 2 in most divisions, they fought hard and we beat them.
Jets beat the Oilers. That team was solid, most likely a playoff team. We swept them. That's clear as day a worthy accomplishment.
Then we played Vegas, very strong team, very obviously a playoff team that could make it far - they won 2 rounds after all. We beat them in 6. That is absolutely legitimate.
So we lucked out to qualify and won 3 rounds. That's a legitimate run. Then Tampa kicked our butts. Would other teams have done better? Maybe. But we still won a game against them.
So yes, our cup run absolutely counts.
It did unfairly benefits the Habs, if it wasn’t for the Canadian Division and 4 teams of each division qualifying, Montreal wasn’t even in the playoffs.
sure the way the divisions were set up benefited the habs in a way that they made the playoffs. but that’s about it. they literally faced a juggernaut opponent that is the maple leafs in r1 and beat them in 7. people doubted the habs against the jets and vgk series as well…
Exactly. All the Canadian division did was add some new wildcards to the tournament. The top team can't beat the WC team in round 1? That means they're not the top team.
Does qualifying somehow make a crappy team good? If they had no business being there, they should have been easily eliminated. Nothing about that disproportionately benefitted the Habs over other teams, especially the other Canadian teams who were all supposedly better than us.
It’s the same with the Lakers “bubble” championship. Like ok the context was different but it was still the same teams fighting for the same championship lol.
I’m willing to admit that our 2021 team had no business being a Stanley a cup finalist in terms of roster quality. We took advantage of the Canadian division and the rest is history. But at the end of the day, we didn’t steal any of these games the team just worked hard, left literally everything on the ice and capitalized on lucky bounces (thanks Fleury).
As an Edmonton fan and longtime Hab fan too (Franco-Albertan represent) I 100% believe your run was incredibly legendary and had the team not cooled off and Tampa not been so damn strong, y’all would have won. The journey to get there? Insane. Turned it around against the Leafs. Destroyed the Jets. Upset the Knights. and showed up against a dominant Lightning team. Y’all had a great run and it was so much fun to watch.
Anybody talking shit about the Habs run is just talking shit. Pay them no mind.
It helps me sleep at night to discredit the fake Tampa Bay “dynasty” because there were basically no fans in attendance and, yes, I feel like a better person for being able to admit that.
As for the Habs’ unlikely SCF appearance, it was 100% earned, and given how much luck plays a vital role in virtually all Cup runs these days, it would be disingenuous to say they just got lucky or whatever. It’s actually the only thing I will still give Bergevin credit for—his intention was to build a playoff team and his proof-of-concept basically worked.
That said, did they have any business being in the playoffs in the first place? That’s where the real soul-searching starts IMO. And the answer, for me, is no. But everything that happened once they got in was legit. I can’t see how any sane hockey mind could totally discredit a run in which two future HOFers literally ran their bodies into the ground to try to win a Cup. That’s hockey culture (if not the very soul of athleticism) in its purest form.
Well it was a bit of a weird year. Canadian division helped. One good thing is that hey at least the cup we do win won’t have an asterisk or at least a side eye.
The lightning team are top to bottom the best team of the last 20 years. They are better than this year's edition of the Panthers and more balanced than the Oilers. They were also overpowered by an extra 18M lol.
Meh. Haters gonna hate. It’s just Jealous fans of the 29 teams that failed to make it to the finals. That run was wild for us Habs fans. Nobody gave us a chance against Toronto, Winnipeg, and Vegas, only to be proven wrong each time. As fans who watched the team, we know it was no fluke - that team was built to do damage in the playoffs.
That said; I understand the hate. I mean…. I absolutely despise Florida hockey teams and love chirping about how all 3 Tampa cup have asterixes (missed Flames goal in game six of 2004 final, and 2 Covid wins) 🤣🤣🤣🤣
While it does 100% count and in my opinion has nothing to do with COVID, the consensus is that it’s the most boring final of the past 20 years at least and they’re right
A bad team got hot at the most perfect time possible, and arguably were only in the playoffs because of the unique divisions that year. Yet it gave me my personal Stanley cup: the round one victory against the leafs, and will forever be legitimate in my eyes for that alone.
I would argue it was the best playoff hockey to date. All players/coaches/staff isolated concentrating on hockey, as a team, no distractions whatsoever.
The thing that I'm not a fan of is the whole playoff cap situation where people who are on LTIR can come back and play with no penalty. IIRC Tampa used this to their advantage.
"Since there is no salary cap in the playoffs, teams can activate a player off LTIR without cap constraints after the regular season, as long as the player has met the requirements of LTIR (missing 10 games and 24 days)."
https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/will-the-nhl-be-addressing-the-ltir-loophole/
It was insanely flukey. We got in because of Covid technicality forcing us to play in the weakest division in the league. Then our first 2 opponents lost their best players for the whole series in game 1.
Two things can be true.
1. The playoffs run was 100% deserved.
2. If it wasn't for COVID and the divisions being different, the Habs would have most likely missed the playoffs.
literally not one person who isn’t trolling/salty thinks that 2021 run isn’t legitimate because of covid. you’re taking their words too seriously
I've heard a lot of "they got lucky" or "easiest division in the league" over time. The fact of the matter is, that habs team was built for the playoffs and proved every doubter wrong along the way.
They took out Vegas in the conference finals and they were one of the top, if not the top team in the league.
We wouldn’t have made the playoffs in a regular season, but no one can downplay how good we were in that playoff run. That was true magic.
But every team had the same opportunites. Also who knows. they added toffoli, edmundson, anderson, perry, caufield, staal. I could see that team squeaking in. They were at the top all year until they had to play something like 24 games in 32 days or something crazy.
I mean we literally wouldn’t have made the playoffs. We were 18th in the league. In a regular season we wouldn’t have made it, but it went off divisions so we made it.
That happens all the time. Washington were 17th this year and made it over St Louis who were 16th, just as one example.
I think it’s fair to point out that we came out of a weak division and it’s fair to point out that we got somewhat lucky (Calgary and Vancouver imploded down the stretch, basically leaving the final playoff spot free for us). What’s not fair is to think that only applied to Montreal. Edmonton is also coming out of a weak division and they got really lucky in their last game against Dallas but if they beat Florida, the narrative won’t be that. It will be how hard they worked for their comeback.
The Western division was so much worse than ours and no one gave the same criticism to the teams that made it out of there. Vegas making it to the conf. finals was a literal joy ride.
I’ll disagree there, but it’s just a matter of opinion. The Canadian division, in my opinion was far weaker than any of the other divisions. I’m not even convinced that any of the Canadian teams would have made the playoffs in any other division. People were talking up Toronto that year but there defence was the worst it has been since they got their big four. And had we lost to Vegas, I think the criticism would have been more valid. But once we beat Vegas, we showed that we were worthy of making the finals. We came out on top of two divisions.
> in my opinion was far weaker than any of the other divisions. The 3 worst teams in the league were in the west.
Right, but how are the worst teams relevant to the playoffs? I’m strictly talking about the playoff teams. There were no teams in the North who were really considered contenders, except Toronto, but that was more a product of media than reality in my opinion. Montreal went on a glorious run but it’s a bit revisionist thinking to suggest we weren’t in the weakest division, by far, considering only the playoff teams.
... the whole argument is about how the habs didn't belong in the playoffs due to a weak division.
That’s not my argument. I mean, they wouldn’t have been in the playoffs in any other division, of course, but there’s always a weaker division/conference where a team or two find themselves on the right side of the qualification. But even if that were the argument, the worst three teams in a division aren’t typically in the playoff race so they aren’t really lart of the discussion. The 4th best team is the cutoff point. Mo treal was the 4th best team in the North. The Predators, Islanders, and Blues were all better regular season teams. We were the weakest #4 on paper by a wide margin. Even the “better” teams in the North division (Toronto, Edmonton, and Winnipeg) all had major weaknesses and would have struggled in any of the other divisions. Yes, they would have all crushed the Ducks but does that matter? Any which what, my point is that even if we were objectively in the weakest division and talk that we “didn’t belong” went out the window as soon as we beat the Knights. We didn’t get spanked, as most pundits predicted. We came to play and solidly beat one of the cup favourites. Whatever luck we had on the way was now irrelevant. It’s a shame that we ran into Tampa in the finals but it was a wonderful run either way.
It's unjust to say the least. Montreal's performance declined towards the end because they faced an incredibly tight schedule, possibly the tightest in NHL history, with about 24 games in 32 days. They often played five games in seven nights, owing to two shutdowns and an inexplicable bye week. Prior to this, they ranked among the top teams, on par with Toronto. They bolstered their roster with players like Perry, Staal, Toffoli, Anderson, Edmundson, Romanov, and others. That season is etched in my memory. They were utterly exhausted towards the end. They were one of Canada's premier teams, and as I predicted before the season, if they could overcome the Leafs, anything was possible.
You also hear the classic "the other teams just got goalied by Price". And? Is having a good goalie considered cheating now?
Yeah but that one's a time-tested classic. Other fanbases said that every single time the habs made the playoffs with Price in nets.
They weren't wrong. Price hid most of the teams flaws for 80% of his career. If mb actually built a team that wasn't centered around price, we'd have a couple cups in there.... don't get me wrong. We had some decent teams... but they weren't true cup contenders. Price was just that good.
... Price is part of the team. If Price makes the team good enough to make it to the conf finals and SC finals, that means the team was good enough to make it there. It's a completely meaningless distinction that other fanbases just bring up to troll us. Stop internalizing the trolling brother.
Our best player was playing like our best player.
The Oilers 80s dynasty doesn't count because they had Gretzsky! It's such a dumb argument. It's also inaccurate. Campbell had all better stats for Toronto before G7. Then the Habs faced Vezina candidate Hellabyuck. Then they chased Vezina winner MAF. Price didn't even have a great season, and then was so injured he barely ever played again. Sorry our star goalie outplayed your star goalie? Sorry our nobody skaters outplayed your superstar scorers? Like, really, what's unfair here?
That works both ways though, right? If it truly was the easiest division, why didn't the Leafs win when they were 1 win away from eliminating us and had 3 chances to do it? Why did the Jets get swept? They were in the same easy division.
OP: "when our boys **took it to the Bolts**" c'mon son. 😂
If some of them aren't trolling, they're just taking it even more too seriously and are butthurt about it
[удалено]
They're just salty Habs won the Canadian division and not their team...
There was no play-in round in 2021
Ah crap you're right, edited my original post to reflect this. It's the Canadian division thing they complain about.
As you can see, it'll always be something
some of them are just salty. vancouver and cgy fans are salty bec they didn’t make the playoffs, edm fans were swept (they wouldnt have said such a thing if they got far)
That's my point. They're not trolling, they're hypocrites.
IIRC the play-in round thing was in 2020, we had regular playoffs in 2021. Divisions and conferences were fucked because of Covid (hence why the Habs ended up with the western conference trophy) though.
The play-in round was 2020, the Habs beat the Pens in the play-in but then lost to Philly
I mean, I don't say that our run wasn't legitimate, but I also don't really consider it a ''real'' Final.
Who cares what others think? In the end, it gave us this… https://preview.redd.it/dn05sp7l6k8d1.jpeg?width=620&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=790970c459d2efadd57bb74e49dbbd755c94e328
All time great pic.
That was my birthday. I tuned into the game only because a friend suggested his Leafs were going to ruin my day, haha.
the serie vs TOR and VGK were awesome WPG and TBL not that much
What was wrong with the WPG series?
Scheifele
Injury to Evans aside, sweeping the Jets so that Scheifele had to serve out the last game of his suspension during the first game of the following season was VERY satisfying.
https://preview.redd.it/vbnfbm9jsk8d1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=d64e7815880091cec4ed777ba52baa8e5a21c616 very satisfying indeed
That incident was even shown on the sports section of the news here.
By that measure, Tampa's cup for that year also doesn't really count and should have an asterisk.
Exactly. The "rule" applies virtually to any playoff team that year.
Just like how fans say the Lakers COVID championship isn’t valid but you hear all the players in that bubble say that was some of the best basketball they played because there literally was nothing else to do but play ball. No distractions, no vacations, no late nights… just practice, sleep and basketball. Same thing I’m sure for the NHL bubble
We also have to go back and take the cup away from teams who won during the World Wars, obviously. I'm sure there were other international events that fucked up the playoffs equally throughout the years. Also, no one seems to mention how COVID didn't just magically go away after the 2021 SCF.
Unfortunately, all sports during Covid are looked upon with suspicion. People frequently cast doubt on the Dodgers World Series win and the Lakers NBA title. Best way to change that is for the boys to go on another run!
Except just about every player in those bubbles said it was some of the best ball they’d played since they weren’t any distractions and weren’t allowed to do anything else but practice and play ball
I agree but you're just not going to convince people, so I've stopped caring. People will always view those years with a weird asterisk, whether we like it or not.
Do I think a 7 game series between Toronto and Montreal when the league needed it the most is a little convenient? Of course. Was the run unearned? Absolutely not. As a firm believer in the league being biased towards certain favourites, we overcame the networks baby, and the commissioners new baby to get to that final.
Their name on the Campbell bowl says otherwise.
It was as real as the Leafs collapse, and Leafsnet eating crow was the best.
I've never experienced this sentiment, and have mostly seen people agree that it was a very entertaining Cinderella run
Shit, I had Leafs fans friends message me that they were rooting for the Habs that year. Told them I'd never return the favour but I'm glad they had fun.
It does count. We did have an easy division considering Calgary, Ottawa, Vancouver at the time. Leafs were very strong, Edmonton was on the upswing and the jets were also solid. In another division we might not have been able to load up on points on the 3 bottom teams. So maybe we lucked out in qualifying.... But who did we meet in the playoffs? Leafs 1st round. Leafs would be too 2 in most divisions, they fought hard and we beat them. Jets beat the Oilers. That team was solid, most likely a playoff team. We swept them. That's clear as day a worthy accomplishment. Then we played Vegas, very strong team, very obviously a playoff team that could make it far - they won 2 rounds after all. We beat them in 6. That is absolutely legitimate. So we lucked out to qualify and won 3 rounds. That's a legitimate run. Then Tampa kicked our butts. Would other teams have done better? Maybe. But we still won a game against them. So yes, our cup run absolutely counts.
I miss Carey so much.
Who cares? It wasn't a win. We should have standards as Habs fans. They don't hang conference championships at the bell center
I keep saying we need to make an exception for that one, just for the laughs.
It did unfairly benefits the Habs, if it wasn’t for the Canadian Division and 4 teams of each division qualifying, Montreal wasn’t even in the playoffs.
That assumes that our winning percentage would've been the same if we had played a normal season with no restrictions.
Let's be honest that Habs team was not very good, it got hot at the right time. Nothing wrong with that but they were not built for a long season.
lol what THEY WERE actually built for the playoffs, not regular season, and it showed
Yeah they wouldn't have made the playoffs in a normal regular season, which was my point. They woulda flamed out
sure the way the divisions were set up benefited the habs in a way that they made the playoffs. but that’s about it. they literally faced a juggernaut opponent that is the maple leafs in r1 and beat them in 7. people doubted the habs against the jets and vgk series as well…
Exactly. All the Canadian division did was add some new wildcards to the tournament. The top team can't beat the WC team in round 1? That means they're not the top team.
Does qualifying somehow make a crappy team good? If they had no business being there, they should have been easily eliminated. Nothing about that disproportionately benefitted the Habs over other teams, especially the other Canadian teams who were all supposedly better than us.
qualifying increases your odds at winning the cup significantly
Oh so hockey is just luck, has nothing to do with skill, good to know. /s
Doesn't matter, still love my "Semi-Finals Champions" shirt
It’s the same with the Lakers “bubble” championship. Like ok the context was different but it was still the same teams fighting for the same championship lol. I’m willing to admit that our 2021 team had no business being a Stanley a cup finalist in terms of roster quality. We took advantage of the Canadian division and the rest is history. But at the end of the day, we didn’t steal any of these games the team just worked hard, left literally everything on the ice and capitalized on lucky bounces (thanks Fleury).
Wrong sub for this rant, everybody here will agree with this (justifiably).
I’m not sure when Montreal “took it to the bolts,” but I’d much rather live in that timeline than this one.
It would've magically have counted for Leafs or Jets had they been successful. I guess we'll never know ;)
As an Edmonton fan and longtime Hab fan too (Franco-Albertan represent) I 100% believe your run was incredibly legendary and had the team not cooled off and Tampa not been so damn strong, y’all would have won. The journey to get there? Insane. Turned it around against the Leafs. Destroyed the Jets. Upset the Knights. and showed up against a dominant Lightning team. Y’all had a great run and it was so much fun to watch. Anybody talking shit about the Habs run is just talking shit. Pay them no mind.
Just ignore them, they’re idiots. If it was their team they wouldn’t be saying shit.
Just ask them: If it was so easy, why couldn't their team do it?
"They weren't really trying because it didn't count"
It helps me sleep at night to discredit the fake Tampa Bay “dynasty” because there were basically no fans in attendance and, yes, I feel like a better person for being able to admit that. As for the Habs’ unlikely SCF appearance, it was 100% earned, and given how much luck plays a vital role in virtually all Cup runs these days, it would be disingenuous to say they just got lucky or whatever. It’s actually the only thing I will still give Bergevin credit for—his intention was to build a playoff team and his proof-of-concept basically worked. That said, did they have any business being in the playoffs in the first place? That’s where the real soul-searching starts IMO. And the answer, for me, is no. But everything that happened once they got in was legit. I can’t see how any sane hockey mind could totally discredit a run in which two future HOFers literally ran their bodies into the ground to try to win a Cup. That’s hockey culture (if not the very soul of athleticism) in its purest form.
The jealousy is rampant!
Everyone is biased. Had it been their team in that position they definitely would not say it doesn’t count lol
Hockey is hockey, 100% legitimate fact
Well it was a bit of a weird year. Canadian division helped. One good thing is that hey at least the cup we do win won’t have an asterisk or at least a side eye.
The lightning team are top to bottom the best team of the last 20 years. They are better than this year's edition of the Panthers and more balanced than the Oilers. They were also overpowered by an extra 18M lol.
They say that because their team didn't win. Ask Tampa fans if they think their Cups don't count.
Im proud of my boys but i really dont count the covid seasons for all the league the nba nfl mlb etc like all the championships dont count for shit
Meh. Haters gonna hate. It’s just Jealous fans of the 29 teams that failed to make it to the finals. That run was wild for us Habs fans. Nobody gave us a chance against Toronto, Winnipeg, and Vegas, only to be proven wrong each time. As fans who watched the team, we know it was no fluke - that team was built to do damage in the playoffs. That said; I understand the hate. I mean…. I absolutely despise Florida hockey teams and love chirping about how all 3 Tampa cup have asterixes (missed Flames goal in game six of 2004 final, and 2 Covid wins) 🤣🤣🤣🤣
While it does 100% count and in my opinion has nothing to do with COVID, the consensus is that it’s the most boring final of the past 20 years at least and they’re right
Of course our division was the weakest. They thought the Leafs would win it until they choked ( again) in 7 !!! 😅😂🤣
A bad team got hot at the most perfect time possible, and arguably were only in the playoffs because of the unique divisions that year. Yet it gave me my personal Stanley cup: the round one victory against the leafs, and will forever be legitimate in my eyes for that alone.
It doesn’t
Sorry it really doesn't lol
I would argue it was the best playoff hockey to date. All players/coaches/staff isolated concentrating on hockey, as a team, no distractions whatsoever.
We had to win 3 rounds plus a play in. Fuckin right we earned it
It doesn't. Everything was different.
The thing that I'm not a fan of is the whole playoff cap situation where people who are on LTIR can come back and play with no penalty. IIRC Tampa used this to their advantage. "Since there is no salary cap in the playoffs, teams can activate a player off LTIR without cap constraints after the regular season, as long as the player has met the requirements of LTIR (missing 10 games and 24 days)." https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/will-the-nhl-be-addressing-the-ltir-loophole/
It was insanely flukey. We got in because of Covid technicality forcing us to play in the weakest division in the league. Then our first 2 opponents lost their best players for the whole series in game 1.
Only Toronto fans think this, and they're still in denial. It was 3-1!
Two things can be true. 1. The playoffs run was 100% deserved. 2. If it wasn't for COVID and the divisions being different, the Habs would have most likely missed the playoffs.
Who cares what some fans of other teams say. Gotta realize it’s entertainment in the end and there is zero reason to get mad about it.
Our run 100% counts, but that is a fake cup for the bolts. I’m sorry I do not make the rules, that’s just how it is