Requiem For A Season: one fan's view

Randy Renaud is a long-time Montreal broadcaster on CHOM-FM and CTV Montreal. He's also a long suffering fan of Les Canadiens who as a young goaltender tried to emulate Ken Dryden The old Forum is sacred ground for him, which is why he refuses to this day to attend any movies there.

What was once a passionate affair with the Habs has become over the past two decades an often strained relationship sustained by thousands of happy memories and continuing moments of heightened joy, but all too often these days, heartbreak.

Still, he recognizes the lasting power of true love.

Requiem for a Season

The failed relationships that sting the most are the ones where you honestly felt it was going places, that it was going to be a beautiful romance filled with great moments, perhaps leading up to that very special celebration.

So when it becomes clear that your expectations were misguided, and that there is, in fact, no future, one generally feels betrayed and angry. For how could the once-beloved have led one on in this way?

The truth is, however, that the fault lies, at least partly, with oneself for seeing promise where there was little, and fashioning a storybook romance of success out of a trial fling.

And so it is for Habs fans and the latest edition of Les Canadiens. Titillated by a fairy-tale regular season last year – cut short by seemingly minor character flaws in the post-season – belief was high that THIS TIME, it would be so much better.

This time, we'd go all the way. How could we not? After all, it was the Centennial Season. Aren't Hollywood epics born of such symmetrical storylines?

That optimistic zeal was, it should be noted, primarily based on an incredibly successful power-play that accounted for an astounding 90 of the team's 257 goals – more than a third of all goals scored. At even strength, they looked far less attractive, managing to score only 8 more than they surrendered for the whole season.

Meanwhile, they were outshot over the 82 games 2,589 to 2,383. And once they reached the playoffs where the going gets tough and the tough gulp champagne, Claude Julien and then John Stevens schooled their players in the virtues of cutting off the Habs' flashy passing lanes and pressuring their forwards and especially defencemen whenever they tried to operate on the perimeter.

Over the summer, however, our lovely temptress team did herself up with accessories like Tanguay, Lang, and Laraque (giving her a new feistiness), and that, added to the virtues of another year's experience, made this new season look promising indeed.

An 8-2 start just added to our collective belief that it was sure to be a spring marriage, er, celebration. But after thrashings at the hands of the Leafs and Bruins in November, doubt began whispering ever so softly in our ears.

By January's four-game losing streak, in which we were outscored 19-8, the whispers escalated to screams. Now we're down to the furniture-throwing and extended stays back at mother's place.

Sure there were numerous injuries to key players. And there was the glaring absence of a credible shot from the point, or even a reliable quarterback for the PP. And the lack of more than one forward willing and able to tough it out in the corners.

But more than anything, this season has always felt like one long corporate management conference where the powers-that-be decide who should be retained and who should be let go and who might be available elsewhere once the snow melts. And the next 28 games now become an extended appraisal period in preparation for the run for the cup in Season 101.

And there are many reasons to be excited about how this team may look in 6 months. Many of her Slavic idiosyncrasies may be gone, and some of her youthful spunk may have tempered into sophistication.

She may look enticingly different or blandly similar. But one thing's for sure, a wink and a smile and an early season winning streak, and we'll be falling for her all over again.

Until then, just remember to duck.