My Canadiens' 100th birthday show of respect

Seeing that the Canadiens are coming to town for a date with the Canucks on Sunday, and that this is their big 100 year anniversary, I figured I'd mention my favorite Canadiens moment(s). I'll try to make it quick.

I've never been a fan of the Habs but I can respect some of their history. I saw their Cup runs in the late 70's as a very young kid watching with my father. I have no recollection of those wins. I remember the 1986 playoffs and the emergence of Patrick Roy and Claude Lemieux.

But what more can be said about their run in the 1993 playoffs? 10 overtime wins. Complete team character. If you look at the Canadiens' stats in the 1992-93 regular season you can see that they had great guys in Vinny Damphousse, Kirk Muller, Brian Bellows and Stephane Lebeau. None of them cracked the 100 point barrier. I don't think many people expected them to go anywhere, especially not after they were down 2 games to none in round 1 versus a talent-laden Nordiques team.

But then the overtime magic kicked in, and hero after hero emerged as the playoffs wore on. John Leclair, Paul Dipeitro, Gilbert Dionne...where in the hell did these guys come from? Dipietro had 4 goals and 17 points in 29 regular season games with the Habs that year. In the playoffs he scored 8 goals and 13 points in 17 games.

This team was ultimate proof that all you need to do is just get into the playoffs and anything can happen.

This Habs team almost wanted to go into overtime because they were so confident in their ability. I can respect that Cup run. That is my Habs 100th anniversary two cents: The Habs winning the Cup on Stanley's 100th birthday.

But I still hate them.