Surging Habs sweep fans off their feet

[Habsfan84]

There were almost two minutes remaining in this NHL version of Super Tuesday when the sellout crowd did something it rarely does: people young and old rose to their feet as one, almost by lemming-like instinct, and made the place almost tremble with their applause.

They continued standing on their feet and roaring through to the end of the game. They roared when the Canadiens swept off their bench, roared when the friendly head-butts were exchanged between the skaters and goaltender Carey Price, continued engulfing the Bell Centre with their noise while the players skated off the ice. And of course, most of them remained standing and continued roaring through the announcement of the three stars ... saving the loudest for Price.
And why not, eh? They had just watched the Canadiens play their best game at home this season en route to a 4-0 victory, watched them climb over the New Jersey Devils into the Eastern Conference lead in their most important game of the season. Watched them handle the Devils for a third consecutive game ... and watched them dominate from start to finish, even though they were outshot 33-18 in the first two periods.
What was truly impressive on this Super Tuesday is that in doing so, they also had to beat Martin Brodeur, a guy who has been known to be unbeatable at this late stage in the season.
It's not engraved in stone, but if the Canadiens are to go far in the playoffs, they'll probably have to do it going through the Devils, going through Brodeur, just as they did last night ... just as they have in their last three games with the Devils after losing 4-0 the first time the teams met this season.
We're talking about a goaltender who had stopped 104 of 107 shots in his last three games, and who came into the game with a 12-3-3 record and a 1.91 GAA in 18 starts since Feb. 2. Talking about a world-class goaltender who had delivered a 2.02 GAA in three games against the Canadiens this season.
Beat Brodeur and you beat the Devils. How sweet it is. It's only one game, but outclass them, as the Canadiens did, and it's seventh heaven.
Last night, it was a team that richly deserved the applause they received at the end of the first and second periods, and the roars that shook the building during the last two minutes of regulation - and beyond.
You might remember the last time these teams met was only 10 days ago when the Canadiens got a third-period power play goal. It came after the Devils survived being two men down but six seconds before Jamie Langenbrunner's penalty was up, Andrei Kostitsyn forced a shot off Brodeur's stick and into the net for a wraparound goal that proved to be the difference.
Last night, the difference was a team wanting to win it more, getting prepared better for the game and, of course, getting the better goaltending in a game the Canadiens were eventually outshot, 38-33.
The easy thing would be to blame at least part of this devil of an embarrassment on the absence of three New Jersey defenceman, the best among them Paul Martin, who's a plus-19 thus far. Easy, but don't even think about it.

When was the last time you saw a team outshot 20-14 in the first period, leave with a 2-0 lead and, despite the disparity in shots, looked like the much better team.

It's called being exquisitely prepared for a game. They came out skating. They came out hitting and when Bryan Smolinski beat Brodeur fewer than five minutes into the game, it doesn't get better than that. It was a sharply angled shot that Brodeur probably would like to have back and while there was little he could do on the Saku Koivu goal, let's just say that a Brodeur on top of his game would have stopped that shot.
I mean ... when you've got people on the ice such as Zach Parise and Patrik Elias, you expect offence from them rather than from the checkers assigned to them.
Add this: despite being outshot 33-18 during the first two periods, at no time did the Canadiens look like a team that looked as if it was being outplayed. The reverse was true - particularly since Carey Price was stopping everything. He stopped them long and stopped 'em short. And where he really excelled was during several scrums in his crease when the Devils attempted to move him into his net - without success.
Bottom line: your Canadiens were nothing less than super on Super Tuesday.
How does Super Thursday sound to you?