Freddie P's Blog

May 1, 2010 @ 09:45

I knew it wouldn't take long. After Jaroslav Halak's less than stellar performance against the Pittsburgh Penguins last night, the excuses have started and right at the top of the list is one I expected. Fatigue.

Already Hab fans have been e-mailing CanadianThinker.com claiming that Halak was tired and it will be different in game two. Please.

I know a lot of you think I write a lot of this stuff just to get a rise out of the most aggravating fans in all of sport ( Hab fans) and although there's some truth to that, when it comes to Halak, I'm dead serious. The guy is over-rated.

The Washington series was an anomaly. The Capitals woeful playoff history and their lack of leadership when the pressure is on made up for half the battle in the last series and to pretend it didn't is just foolish.

You could see it last night. The Penguins bigger, stronger, grittier and more committed than the Caps and they have no problem going straight to the net, unlike the Caps who preferred to play the outside.

And how about the power play? The Montreal PK which appeared to be super-human during the Washington series looked like Swiss cheese last night.

What's the point of all this? Halak wasn't tired last night, he was exposed. Don't get me wrong, he's not a bad goaltender but don't tell me a 24 year old kid is fatigued after one seven game playoff series where he didn't even play all the games.

To use fatigue as an excuse is just silly and underwrites what makes Hab fans so tedious.

In my writings last week I exercised caution in my worship of Halak because I wasn't convinced what I was seeing was the real deal. Several glove saves were embellished and even more saves were the result of some extremely fortunate geometry.

The guy was on a roll with lady luck.

I know what's going to happen next. Hab fans are going to react to this by accusing me of exactly what they're guilty of. Premature evaluation.

But that doesn't bother me because in the end I'm completely confident I'll be correct.

Halak is over-rated, the Habs aren't a very good team and they caught the Washington Capitals at precisely the right time.

Against Pittsburgh it will be different. Much different and the Habs Stanley Cup drought will stretch to 18 long years.

Category: Sports