No Canada Yet Again–Will Be Carolina (12-1) In These ‘Offs vs Las Vegas (12-4) In The Cup Final

The Carolina Hurricanes, as noted above (12-1) in these ‘offs (6-0) road, (6-1) home), advanced to their third NHL final round, all three in years they beat the Montreal Canadiens, three of the now 33 consecutive seasons both Montreal, the last such team to do so or any Canada team, won the title, 5’ing the Habs as the Cup final was set for a second straight season on May 29th.

“Caro,” which had lost 4 straight “semis” after the wins in ’02 and ’06, and gone a woeful (1-16) in those tilts, the lone win last season, won 2 overtime games and won (4-0) and (6-1), the latter in last night’s clincher, to advance.

They lost the series opener at home (as I “warn” every year yet fail to “cash,” every team or at least the so great majority lose at least one game at home) but won the next four, reversing their final round loss vs Detroit (the great Scotty Bowman’s record breaking 9th and last title) when they won game 1 at Detroit but lost the next four.

In Montreal’s last three title wins, (4-1’s) abound. In fact in all three, ’79 vs the Rangers, ’86 vs the Flames and ’93 vs the Kings–Montreal lost game 1 but won the next four. Now again it is 33 years, Kenny Albert who “Olympic’d” the Canada final game loss “presided” for Bettman, who might be singing “No Canada” in the shower.

Carolina won it all in ’06, winning in 7 vs Buffalo (the Habs 7’d Buffalo in this year’s “qtrs” but … also do not kid yourself as I sound bitter “Caro” was by a good margin, the better team) and then in the same # they beat Edmonton, to grab its lone title to date. (They “opened” (-140) vs L.V. –the entity opens this Thursday, one day after the NBA final commences—its opponent who will be favored but not by what most thought, vs the (12-2) in the ‘offs Knicks to be determined tonight (“City” only (-3 plus vs San Antonio).

Carolina coach, Rod Brind’Amour, pictured above, now (1-3) as a coach in semis series and (5-13) in such tilts was a key member of the ’06 Carolina title team.

As Carolina, the Hurricanes are (3-0) vs Montreal in the ‘offs, all 3 times making the final round.

As the Whalers, the franchise was (0-5) vs those Habs including a tough game 7 “quarters” loss at the Montreal Forum when Claude Lemieux scored the winning goal.