“We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
MONTREAL, QC. — Hockey Math.
I excelled in math in school. Algebra, calculus, statistics. It was a breeze.
Yet hockey math causes me much stress.
Why?
Because the experts who calculate hockey math tell me that my boys in the Bleu Blanc Rouge won’t make the playoffs.
But that’s all it is. Math.
It doesn’t take into account the determination, the heart and the drive these players are exhibiting to get to that next level. Where in hockey math’s formulae is that component, I wonder?
No where.
There are 23 games left to play, which means the Canadiens can pick up a maximum of 46 points. We know they won’t win every single game, but they are only 8 points out of that coveted 8th place playoff spot.
If the stars align, and they start winning and others start losing… Well, one never knows.
This is my hockey math.
You can go hard or you can go home. Will.I.Am’s lyric is ever so relevant now.
The Habs have to play each game like it is Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.
Can they do this? You bet they can.
We have seen it. Last night against the Boston Bruins, they played liked this. The final result was not what everyone wanted, but the effort Coach Randy Cunneyworth wanted from the boys, he got.
“Looking at the effort and being down a couple of goals and battling hard says a lot about the group, the determination. It was a gutsy, gritty performance, our physicality was excellent. I think we stepped up to the plate in that department for sure. We had 20 going and no passengers”
Josh Gorges echoed this as well.
“We’re going to scratch and claw and do everything we can and we’ve been playing like it too. We’ve had a couple of rough patches but there’s still lots of hockey left. There is no time to let up, we don’t have that luxury.”
Hockey math. Please…
I want them to make the playoffs, because then it is a brand new season, and anything can happen.
Truly… Anything can happen.
I want them to win. That’s all that matters now.
Win.
(AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Paul Chiasson)