Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. As a Habs faithful, it was hard not to draw parallels between this spring's playoff run and 1993, the last time the Montreal Canadiens hoisted the Stanley Cup. This year's edition included aging stars such as Brian Gionta, Andrei Markov with a collection of journeymen such as Rene Bourque, Dale Weise, Mike Weaver who kept scoring big goals and blocking big shots.
However, the cornerstone of the Habs' infrastructure was Carey Price, a goalie who's won a gold medal at the World Junior Championships in 2007, the Calder Cup as a rookie goalie in the American Hockey League in 2007 and most recently a gold medal at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. The only item missing on his distinguished pedigree is the Holy Grail of hockey: the Stanley Cup.
It pains me to admit it, but without Price in net, the Habs' small players wouldn't have made it to the conference final, let alone qualify for the playoffs. The Habs don't have a single elite forward comparable to Sidney Crosby, Jonathan Toews, Cory Perry or Patrice Bergeron. However, as Habs fans know all too well, a superstar goalie was more than enough in 1986 and 1993. On both occasions, Hall of Fame goalie Patrick Roy was able to almost single-handedly eliminate much tougher opponents.
The 1993 edition included aging stars such as Kirk Muller, Brian Bellows, Denis Savard (who was a healthy scratch on several occasions) and a supporting cast that included Brian Skrudland, Mike Keane, John LeClair, Benoit Brunet, Gilbert Dionne and Eric Desjardins. If you want to fully understand the quasi-religious faith that sustains Habs fans even when our team is a collection of misfits, memories of the 1986 and 1993 Stanley Cup wins are easy to invoke.
However, our collective faith was badly shaken when the team announced that Carey Price had sustained a "lower-body injury" in the opening game against the New York Rangers. Then, head coach Michel Therrien called on third-string rookie goaltender Dustin Tokarski to save the day, bypassing experienced backup goalie Peter Budaj. Tokarski is a star in the making with impeccable credentials: won the 2008 Memorial Cup and voted tournament MVP, led Team Canada to a gold medal at the 2009 World Junior Championships and won the 2012 Calder Cup in the American Hockey League. However, we were full of doubt. Tokarski is a rookie goaltender who was asked to start in his first NHL playoff game during the conference final at Madison Square Garden in New York. The stage couldn't be bigger, the stakes couldn't be higher. After a brief bout of depression, our faith was rekindled in the face of Tokarski's miracles on ice.
After each playoff round, we started believing that the hockey Gods were once again our side. In the end, the Canadiens came close, but they didn't make it. A listless team that managed only 18 shots on Rangers star goalie Henrik Lunqvist had to face reality. So our Stanley Cup drought now enters its 22nd year. To soften the blow to our collective psyche, we try to tell ourselves that Leafs fans haven't had a Stanley Cup parade since 1967, the same year Prime Minister Pearson presided over Canada's Centennial celebrations. It seems likes ancient history. However, our superiority complex doesn't change our current predicament, although it makes us feel better about rooting for the Habs. Is that a sin?