"St. Patrick"

Back in 1995, I think it was, Montreal had one bad game against Detroit. Mario Tremblay, the energetic (but ultimately sucky) coach left my (probably) one active hockey idol, Patrick Roy, in the game too long, even though Patrick was having a bad game. Several goals in, when Roy would even just come out of his net to slow a puck down, the crowd would cheer, like he'd made some save. Those arseholes so quickly forgot all the success Roy brought to that city. He won two Stanley Cups with them, and with Roy, they were always a threat. One bad game against Detroit changed that. The fans acted like they hated him, and made fun of him. I always hated Montreal's fans for being so critical, and this was their worst hour. I was as fuming as an easy-goin' guy can be. Once Patrick finally made it to the bench, he went right past Tremblay, and told Ronald Corey he'd played his last game in Montreal. It was sad, and maddening, but I didn't blame him one bit. Not long after, Rejean "Raging Fool" Houle traded Roy for basically nothing; Andrei Kovalenko (who scored the last ever goal in the Montreal Forum, against Dallas) and Jocelyn Thibault. Houle almost destroyed the team.

Over ten years later, something similar's come about.

Jose Theodore was, for a time, a very dominant star goalie for Montreal. I liked him and his play. When he's on, he's awesome. Unfortunately, though, he was pretty consistently inconsistent. Therefore, despite his past success (Vezina and Hart trophies, for example), the fans were gettin' to him a bit, and so was his own life and mind, I assume. Because of whatever factors were at work, he was pretty rotten this year. His stats (and his career stats, oddly enough) were worse than Montreal's backup, Cristobal Huet, and their rookie, Yann Danis. Rather surprisingly, Bob Gainey traded Theodore to the same team Roy was dealt to, Colorado (where Roy won two more Cups). It may end up as a bad deal in the long run, or it may end up being a move of pure genius. Theodore may never be as good as he once was, and Montreal will now save millions of dollars in salary that they would have had to pay Theodore. In return for Theodore, Montreal got a pretty good goalie in David Aebischer. However, he allowed 10 goals in his first two games for Montreal. Not good.

Here, we see Carolina's one-legged forward, Josef Stumpy, score a goal on Theo. Yeah, he was that bad in that game.

Cue who could be Montreal's next (unlikely) saviour, Cristobal Huet. He's French, so he meets the criteria, even though he's not from Quebec. It's still too early to tell, but Huet has been more than impressive since he started to outperform Theo for the #1 position, before Theo was even traded. Huet has been quietly dominant, and more importantly, consistent. He's had a few shutouts lately, and in just his last 3 games has a 2-1-0 record, with a 0.67 GAA, and a .974 save %. Right now, he's the anchor for Montreal, as they try to hold a playoff position. If they don't make it, it's not because of him. In the weeks to come, I'll be quietly and respectfully chanting (just as the fans were, when Aebischer was bombing on the weekend), "Hu-et, Hu-et, Hu-et". I hope we have a quiet new hero between the pipes; One that will last, and maybe even be respected.

Cristobal Huet

Maybe since I have an autographed puck and rookie card for both Theodore and Roy,
I should not get one for Huet. It just may keep him (successful) in Montreal! Oh, and aside from my current Montreal happiness, the Leafs are sucking as always. It's double joy!