Atmosphere for matinée games is ‘great’ for Habs and young fans
The Canadiens roll into their traditional Super Bowl weekend matinée doubleheader looking to build on this week’s pair of impressive, important victories over Carolina and Boston.
Now, it seems the Habs’ fortunes are tied to the Denver Broncos, who on Sunday will take on the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLVIII — and to which we’ll return shortly.
The Canadiens entertain the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday with the Winnipeg Jets in town 24 hours later (both games 1 p.m., CBC, RDS, TSN Radio 690).
Expect a young crowd both days, families packing the Bell Centre for games that appeal to kids as much for Youppi!, the scoreboard and arena snacks as for the action on the ice.
“It’s a different crowd, an opportunity for young kids to see the Canadiens and the atmosphere there is always great for these afternoon games. I’m expecting the same thing,” head coach Michel Therrien said Friday in Brossard, having run his team through a light practice.
“I have no problem playing at 1 o’clock on weekends. It’s a different feeling and it should be a lot of fun.”
Matinée games are a break from routine, the customary morning skate cancelled. Some players love simply getting up, going to play, then being home for dinner. Others, whose bodies don’t work well before dark, not so much.
Regardless, brightening the mood this weekend will be the Canadiens’ 3-0 shutout of the Hurricanes at home on Tuesday, then Thursday’s clinical 4-1 victory over Boston, the Bruins reduced to a thin shadow of their usual blustering selves against their oldest, most bitter rival.
The two wins followed a four-game losing streak that had fans whipped into a frenzy of fire this guy/trade that guy/demote the other guy.
Just the usual, but cranked up many decibels.
A week ago, the horrendous Canadiens stomped 5-0 by Washington, Therrien pulled the word “adversity” out of his post-game bag of quotes more than once.
“It’s never a bad thing to face adversity, this is where you can build character,” he repeated Friday. “It’s a matter of how you’re going to respond and we responded the right way (this week).
“We understand in this business that every day and every game is a challenge. (Saturday) won’t be any different. The past week gave confidence to the players, but we have to realize we’ll get success only if we stick to the plan (of) team concept. We proved we can be a good team when we follow that plan.”
Friday’s practice was all hands on deck but for one; forward Brandon Prust didn’t take part, sidelined with the flu. If he’s not good to go on Saturday, expect to see the Canadiens debut of Christian Thomas, recalled from Hamilton on Thursday.
Thomas skated Friday with Prust’s most recent line mates, centre Lars Eller and winger Rene Bourque, the latter having enjoyed a thoroughly involved, four-shot game in Boston, his 16:47 ice time his most since Dec. 28.
The session saw the return to full practice of forward Ryan White, who has missed the past dozen games with an upper-body injury suffered Jan. 2 in Dallas.
His absence was first forecast as day-to-day, then two weeks. That’s grown to a month, and while White hopes to be cleared to return before the Olympic break, that is not guaranteed.
On Friday, he worked a little contact with strength and conditioning coordinator Pierre Allard before practice. Then he skated the full session, rotating with George Parros alongside centre Daniel Brière and winger Travis Moen, White clearly happy to be back after a month of rehab and skating alone.
“I’m taking it day by day and today’s another step in the right direction,” he said. “I’ve just been working hard off the ice trying to get myself in this position.
“Any time you’re injured, you have a timeline and you try to work with it, but things just weren’t healing as quickly as I wanted. I just had to listen to the body and let time do its job. It’s frustrating coming in here and working (in rehab). It seemed like I wasn’t getting any closer to where I wanted to be. But I’ve been injured before. You know it just takes time and hard work, so I’m happy to be back — no restrictions, just going out there and seeing how it goes.”
In the Lightning (31-18-5), the Canadiens and goalie Carey Price will face a club that sits second in the Atlantic Division and third in the Eastern Conference.
They won’t, however, face superstar forward Steven Stamkos, who skated with his team at the Bell Centre Friday noon as he continues his rehab from a broken tibia suffered Nov. 11, aiming to be ready to join Team Canada for the Sochi Olympics.
“I don’t feel where I need to be in order to play a game yet, but it’s getting there,” the 23-year-old told reporters, trying to cool suggestions that his return to action was imminent.
“Today I was in the corners a little more and getting bumped around (but) by no means was it full contact.”
The Lightning-Jets doubleheader marks the Canadiens’ 23rd consecutive Super Bowl weekend at the Bell Centre, dating to 1990-91, the 24th including a 1975-76 twin bill.
The Habs are 26-14-4 in these 46 games, 12-8-3 in Saturday openers, 14-8-1 on Bowl day itself; six times they have swept a weekend, three times they’ve been swept.
Their Super Bowl history is good with the Seahawks — in 2006, while Seattle was losing 21-10 to Pittsburgh in their only trip to the title game, goalie Cristobal Huet was blanking the Philadelphia Flyers 5-0.
And then there’s Denver. In all four of the Broncos’ championship-game losing trips in 1978, ’87, ’88 and ’90, the Habs were winners the night before. But the Canadiens lost on Super Bowl Sunday in both of Denver’s wins, in 1998 and ’99.
For the record, Therrien endorses Denver for Sunday’s game, but without great conviction. More importantly: “Nachos or chicken wings?” he was asked.
With a grin, and to laughter: “Maybe both?”