Stars

Victoria/Patriotes Day is overcast, chilly and damp in  Montreal.

Hockey weather.

Alas, no hockey .... except on TV tonight.

Hands up everyone who thought this series would go to a sixth game.

You have to hand it to Dave Tippett for rallying his troops. Playing without Stu Barnes and Jere Lehtinen, Dallas has been full value for the two games it's won since falling behind 3-0 in this series.

And props to Marty Turco. He ranked as the best goaltender in the Final Four, and Turco has played that way to key the Stars' resurgence.

He's even won a game in Detroit.

And Turco will get a chance to win anoher one at the Joe if the Stars hold serve at home tonight.

Should be a good one. 

Afternoon hockey sucks ... especially when your team isn't playing.

It's an absolutely glorious sunny Saturday morning in Montreal. Forecast calls for clouding over this afternoon, which I'm hoping for so I don't feel like as much of a loser sitting in my basement at 1:30 p.m. watching Detroit and Dallas.

And I hope the weather here is wretched for tomorrow afternoon's doubleheader: Canada-Russia, followed by Philly-Pittsburgh.

I like the Wings to close it out today. They don't want to go back to Dallas, and Marty Turco can't win at the Joe.

Unlike the Penguins, who rolled over in Philadelphia Thursday night, Detroit played hard in Game 4. And if the refs hadn't blown the call on the Datsyuk goal, who knows?

The second period produced some of the best hockey I've seen in the playoffs. Maybe there will be more today.

Will Dallas win one game, just for pride?

REALLY hard to think about hockey today in Montreal. It's hot, temperature in the mid-20s. All the beautiful people are out preening downtown. You don't see many Canadiens' car flags.

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Just for laughs: In the country where someone will win the Stanley Cup, this guy is regarded as a serious political commentator.

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Vancouver front office gets a good man:

Scott Mellaby – very smart guy. I hoped CBC would hire him as their primary analyst, but they're determined to turn P.J. Stock into the next Don Cherry. 

Even though I've never been there, I  don't like the city of Dallas.

This admittedly unreasonable antipathy is based on events that transpired in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. I was an impressionable 10th-grader, and it stuck with me.

The assassination of Robert Kennedy may have been the greater tragedy, but I harbour no enduring ill feelings about  Los Angeles. Maybe it was those Dallas cops in white Stetsons, escorting Oswald out to  a venue where Ruby could shoot him.

But enough about politics. 

I don't like the Dallas Cowboys.

I don't like the Dallas Mavericks.

I respect Brenden Morrow, Marty Turco and Sergei Zubov, but I don't like the Dallas Stars.

I want Detroit to win this series and take their dazzling skills to the Stanley Cup final.

I also wanted the Canadiens to beat Philadelphia. And as someone – either St. Thomas Aquinas or Mick Jagger – observed, you can't always get what you want.

But if you tune in TSN (yay!) at 8 tonight, you might get what you need: a decent Game 3 in the Western Conference final. 

It's a beautiful spring evening in Montreal – much too nice to be indoors watching a game that does not feature the Canadiens.

When I was a wee lad Hockey Night in Canada (which it wasn't called then) didn't begin until an hour after the game started. That may be my approach today – I'll tune in at about 8 or 8:30 to see how many goals Detroit is leading by.

Did you catch the idiot Cherry trashing the Wings last night? He claims fans in Detroit are bored by all that great hockey. They miss Bob Probert, Cherry says.

Attendance for Game I was listed as 20,066. That's capacity at the Joe Louis Arena. Cherry showed a video clip of Kronwall's big hit and you could see empty seats in the background. But that was in the opening minutes of a game that started at 6:30 Detroit time, so some fans may have been running late.

Much and all as Cherry is probably Mike Babcock's guru, I don't think Aaron Downey will be dressing tonight.

The good news: Jim Hughson on play-by-play. Having not watched a single CBC game all season, I was appalled by how out of it Bob Cole was in Pittsburgh last night. Consistently behind the play, misnaming players – when he bothered to identify them at all. Brutal. If he works the Stanley Cup final, that network is officially the C.B.F.C.

Vent away, ladies and gents. I'll jump in later on.

What I'll do through the Canadiens-less – boo-hoo-hoo! – remaining playoff rounds is create a venting post for each game.

I think both series have the potential to produce some great hockey.

A Pittsburgh-Detroit final would be a terrific clash of skills, and that's the matchup I'm predicting.

On the other hand, marty Turco is the best goalie still standing and Brenden Morrow is Studus Maximus.

As for the Flyers .... well, the last two teams that eliminated the Habs went on to win the Cup. But I can't see Martin Biron baffling Crosby, Malkin, Hossa, Staal et al.

What is there to say?

Canadiens didn't show up in Dallas. Lacking heart and conviction, they were beaten by a superior team and, in the process, allowed their general manager to be embarrassed by a player Bob Gainey had traded away.

The Canadiens had 18 shots on goal. Roman Hamrlik, their best defensive defenceman, was minus-four. Carey Price continued his habit of giving up at least one bad goal per game.

As Christopher Higgins said afterwards, the Canadiens couldn't complete two passes, lost all the battles on the boards and were consistently second on the puck.

Price said Dallas had taken the Canadiens to school. The Stars, he added, are good with the puck and Canadiens gave them too much time to play with it.

As was the case when Detroit visited the Bell Centre, it was men against boys – timid, feckless boys at that.

Canadiens are young. They are skating up a learning curve, and what's important is the lessons derived from humiliating losses, the most fundamental of which is "that sucked: what can we do so that it doesn't happen again?"

For all that, your team is still sitting fifth in the Eastern Conference standings. They took three of a possible six points on the first half of their holiday season odyssey.

Canadiens have two days off before boarding a Boxing Day flight to Florida.

Take that, Bob.

Mike Ribeiro scored a goal and added two assists, leading Dallas Satrs to a 4-1 stomping of the woeful Canadiens.

And so the Dec. 23 jinx continues.

Canadiens have not won a road game on this date since 1945.

The only solution: Dec. 23, 2008 in Boston.

Bruins were the team they beat in '45.