Oh the Rats. Each one hitting the ice was another slap to your proverbial ego. Nothing was quite as demoralizing to watch as Tom Barasso seeking cover along with the linesmen in the goal net, as a black monsoon of plastic rats hit the ice in 1996. As this series with the Canadiens moves along flashes of that 1996 Panthers-Penguins ECF keep haunting my dreams.
Mike Cammalleri makes his best Tom Fitzgerald impression, a sixty foot series winning slapshot goal past Marc-Andre Fleury would seal the comparison. Brian Gionta fills his niche as Stu Barnes, the smallish annoying forward who just keeps working, as you ask yourself how is that guy doing this to us?
The best illustration between the two series ultimately remains the frustrating style of the play and timely scoring of the Habs. With every cry, "How did that not go in?" followed by two hands thrown wildly into the air, the analogy to Florida circa 1996 becomes more and more lucid.
The prequel to this series even feels like 1996, a week before the Eastern Conference Finals Penguins fans were cheering as the Panthers choked the life out of the hated Flyers. Florida's defensive system and opportunistic nature seemed cathartic and engaging against the orange and black. The culmination of game six and the final death blow to the Flyers was almost as satisfying as watching the Penguins close out the Rangers in five games three days prior, if not more so. When Florida put home that fourth goal in game six on May 14th, 1996 you were ready to toss a plastic rat out on the ice yourself, in unison with the rest of the south beach crowd. Four days later those rats might as well have infected you with the plague.
Fast forward to 2010 and game 7 of the Capitals-Canadiens series, who wasn't jumping up and down waving their hands in the air as Dominic Moore put the second goal past Varlamov with 3:36 remaining? At that moment we were all Habs fans. The hated Capitals had been cut down much like those venomous Flyers 14 years prior. Little did we know the frustration we were walking into days later.
While the rats back in that series were the antithesis of the animosity boiling over, with each failed Penguin rush up ice and inevitably a Fitzgerald or Barnes counter, at least it gave an outlet to release your inner hatred on. The Canadiens don't even allow that, there is no rat, frustration builds, and you witness the life of the series choked away minute by minute.
Jaroslav Halak does his best John Vanbiesbrouck 14 years later, a gutty, undersized netminder who seems to be everywhere at once, despite his small stature. When a goalie has it going on like he does there is little you can do but hope to seek shelter from the rats.
Game four was the ultimate embodiment of how hard it is to win in the playoffs, and how frustrating a loss can be. A game you feel your team has total control of suddenly is ripped from you with a slow "oh crap" Maxim Lapierre wrap-around game-tying goal, and an own goal to relinquish the lead. Instead of rats showering the ice, it was 21,273 voices in unison rubbing in that this series is not over, not close and despite what you may have thought, never was going to be easy.
Like the memory of rats haunting my dreams 14 years later, I hope the image of Kris Letang staring at an open net in the first period or Sidney Crosby being stoned late in the third, on what looked for a second like an easy put away, aren't the lasting "what if" moments of this series. The Penguins had more than their fair share of chances to put a death grip on this series in games 2 and 4 but seemed to be inches short time and time again just like 1996. Efficient with their opportunities, the Canadiens have made the most of them while the Penguins have let too many quality chances and long stretches of dominating play go to waste.
In 1996 the battle cry after each demoralizing and disheartening loss was eventually the breaks will come and tilt the other way. The Penguins must tilt the ice themselves to insure a repeat of 1996 does not occur, if not, memories of "rats" will have company haunting my hockey dreams.
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