I have been a lifelong Habs fan, ever since watching the 1989 Patrick Roy led team lose in the Cup final to the Calgary flames. 1992-93 was the one year that they of course won the Cup and it has been a long drought since then.
This season I admittingly did not catch as many regular season games as most years. I was disappointed when Saku Koivu signed with Anaheim. I liked some of their offseason pickups - notably Cammalleri and Gomez.
I have watched all of their playoff games and witnessed them improbably coming back down 3-1 against Washington. Now they are giving Crosby, Malkin and the rest of Pittsburgh fits.
At the beginning of the playoffs there were a few players that I did not really know much about - Moore, Pouliot, Darche. I also did not know how much of a wizard their young defensive prospect PK Subban is skating and manuevering with the puck. Josh Gorges ability as a defensive defensive has been exposed to me.
One thing special about this team is that they are a total team effort. They are usually outshot, badly, blocking even more shots and waiting for their chances. Jaroslav Halak has been exceptional.
What makes the Canadiens wins even more phenomenal is that they have done so without their best defensemen - Jaroslav Spacek and Andrei Markov. In their absense, Hal Gill has stepped up his play along with the aforementioned Subban and Gorges.
They may advance further and they may not, but there is something special about this team.
Tressa does not care about hockey per se, but gets behind Montreal to support me : ) She is funny watching hockey with, getting into the game and shouting things like "no, no, no! you get away from the net"
And if they do win it all, then myself, Robert, Vince, David, Danny, Darryl, Elaine, Stephen and many others will be partying like it is 1993