Fans partying as Canadiens thump Hurricanes
It felt like it was going to be a good night from the moment I walked into Brasserie des Rapides in LaSalle Thursday — and it sure turned out to be exactly that, as folks whooped it up while watching the Canadiens thump the Carolina Hurricanes 6-2 in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final.
Even before the game started, things were hopping at this family-run bar-restaurant that’s been a staple in the ‘hood for decades. There was a retirement party for a local firefighter, and close to 100 colleagues attended the sendoff. I spoke with one retired firefighter, who said he felt the Habs could make it to the Stanley Cup final. He made the very good point that the team did incredibly well with sub-par goaltending for much of the regular season, and now they’re rolling with a goalie — a young chap named Jakub Dobes — who has been one of the best netminders in the playoffs.
The house DJ was further pumping up our spirit before the game, blasting everything from Duran Duran to Shania Twain to, yes, Pump Up the Volume, and that high-octane mood never really faltered. There was a brief moment that had folks worried — that would be when the Canes’ Seth Jarvis scored on the team’s first shot just 33 seconds into the game.
But then Cole Caufield netted a beauty 27 seconds later, and it was once again Olé! Olé! Olé! time. Then the floodgates opened. Three minutes later, Phillip Danault — who is having one heck of a post-season — scored on a breakaway, followed by goals from Alexandre Texier and Ivan Demidov, the latter a highlight-reel deke of Carolina goalie Frederik Andersen.
Prior to this series, Carolina hadn’t lost a game and Andersen had an 8-0 record with a 1.12 goals-against average and a .950 save percentage. But I kept reminding people that he put up those numbers playing two weak teams in the Ottawa Senators and the Philadelphia Flyers. Dobes had great numbers in the first two rounds against the Buffalo Sabres and Tampa Bay Lightning, which were the second- and third-ranked teams, respectively, in the Eastern Conference. Andersen showed he was all too human Thursday night.
Brasserie des Rapides is an old-school sports bar-resto in the best sense. A good chunk of the clientele was from LaSalle and the folks who run it seemed to know almost everyone there.
One of the locals who dropped in for a beer was Yvon Lambert, a key member of those phenomenal Canadiens teams of the 1970s. His greatest claim to fame was scoring the overtime winner in Game 7 of the 1979 semifinal against the Boston Bruins. That goal got them into the final and led to them winning their fourth consecutive Stanley Cup. It was also the fateful night Bruins head coach Don Cherry’s team got a too many men on the ice penalty with 2:34 left in regulation and Guy Lafleur scored the most famous goal of his career to force OT.
Lambert had been at a golf tournament in Dorion and he asked his wife to drop him off at the bar, which is close to his home, so he could catch the third period. He says Montreal will win the series in six.
Lambert won four Stanley Cups with some absolutely amazing Habs teams during the ’70s, and I asked him to compare those teams with the current squad.
“They’re really good,” said Lambert. “The big difference is they’re really young. We had a lot of experience and our goaltending was very good, with Ken Dryden. Dobes is also very good right now. That’s why we’re in the conference final and have a chance to go for the Cup. It’s really good hockey, and the fans in Montreal now are unbelievable. Today, they’re younger, with a lot more women compared to our time. It’s completely different.”
Before leaving him, I had to ask about the night in 1979 when he scored that historic overtime goal.
“For 24 hours, I realized what it was like to live Guy Lafleur’s life,” said Lambert.
The majority of pundits in the North American hockey media have picked Carolina to win easily, but out on the streets — or rather inside the brasserie — folks said they always felt Montreal would take the Canes.
“We never stopped believing in this team,” Massimo Eljarrat said. “They played very well, and I’m confident we can push through to the next round. They’ve been resilient all year, and they believe in each other.”
When Anthony Gaetani told me his name, I wondered aloud if I’d meet anyone here who wasn’t Italian, and he said cheerfully, “It’s a local bar, it’s a local feeling.”
As in, we’re in LaSalle!
And he’s feeling the vibe of this Habs team.
“There’s some flukiness, there’s some weird energy to this team — they can’t get beat physically, they can’t get beat mentally,” said Gaetani. “Coaching, it’s not even close. Goaltending, it’s unreal. It’s like, what’s going on? Then you come to Carolina and you win 6-2 against, quote unquote, the hottest goalie in the playoffs. You kick their butt away from home. You’ve had two days of rest, and they’ve had two weeks. I haven’t felt this good about a Habs team in my life. I’m 25. It’s a riot. I feel awesome about this.”
Chazz Pisanelli was feeling mighty upbeat after the win.
“Bare minimum, you’re tied going home, which is already a win,” said Pisanelli. “People are talking about Carolina like an unbeatable juggernaut, but they didn’t play any real teams so far.”
Montreal, on the other hand, has beaten two very real teams so far, and they do have a weird energy that’s propelling them, not unlike — dare I say — a team in 1993 that was never supposed to go all the way. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. It’s one win. You know the Hurricanes will be much better in Game 2.
The last word goes, appropriately enough, to Lambert, who knows a thing or two about winning Stanley Cups.
The former Canadien believes his old team will beat the Hurricanes and after that “you never know.”
Amen.
