It seems Hal Gill is already taking a lot of heat as a whipping boy for the fans who are disgruntled with the Habs defence. Gill wasn't on the ice for the last shift to win the Stanley Cup for the Pittsburgh Penguins because he didn't know what he was doing. He got to immediately hug Marc Andre Fleury because he was Dan Bylsma's first choice to play the most important moment of the two months of hockey leading up to Gill getting a ring. Gill is one of those players who is always going to get off to a less than perfect start. It's quite common for a big man to only slowly get going during a season. He'll naturally get better as the year wears on, and I hope that fans won't be picking him out to boo, though the talk show buzz is that it is about to happen.

Calling out the fans

This is an annoyance of mine. The fans are passionate it is certain, but it is never in the best interests of a fan to try to get a better performance out of a player by booing him. It just serves to make the player tighten his stick, get more nervous, and play worse. The best thing that the fans can do when the Habs jump on to the ice on Thursday night for the home opener against Colorado is to give them a standing ovation - win or lose against Edmonton on Saturday night. Why? How much adrenalin do you get when someone appreciates your work? I can feel good about something as small as my wife appreciating I unloaded the dishwasher. Imagine the rush of getting a standing ovation because you are a Montreal Canadien.

Fair-weather fans

Maybe this blog entry is as quick to fire as a Gionta snapshot, but the players of the league have this thought about Montreal: It's the greatest place in the world to play hockey when the team is winning and the worst when the team is losing. I have heard that from many former Habs. It's time, with an entire new set of players in Montreal, for the fans to also put their best lung forward to concentrate on the 'greatest city ever' half of that statement and make Montreal the hockey Mecca it is for the right reasons. Hal Gill will be happy to hear the cheers on opening night. I just hope he's not listening to sports talk radio on his drive to the game. Those sports announcer types I just can't figure out: one blog they're ripping the Habs, the next blog they're protecting them.

I'm heading to Vancouver to call the Impact championship series game. I'll blog again when I get back and have seen the Oilers-Habs game.