Tomas Plekanec shocked the media on Friday with a prediction. The Habs centre said that Alex Kovalev would be cheered when he returned to Montreal for the Ottawa Senators visit on Saturday night. We reminded him that no one ever gets cheered for having the audacity to change out of a Habs uniform and wear another one. I mean, the nerve to not bleed the CH! I thought Plekanec had been around longer and was a student of the Montreal fan more than that. I offered to bet him that Kovalev, like everyone before him, would get booed. He wouldn't take the bet.

Streit answers

I was of the mind about three years ago that the fans would make exceptions for years of service and dedication to the CH. I realized that no one was outside the realm of having boos reigned down from the rafters when Mark Streit got soundly ripped. You see, Streit should have been the exception. Here was a guy who came from Switzerland and took a huge pay cut to show that he was an NHL player. In his time in Montreal, he never really got a break. He was always thought of as a fledgling player with limited skill. He was tossed from position to position. He was benched many nights. All he did was show up to work, never complain, and improve his game. He got no respect even at the end, when it was obvious to everyone that this was a guy who was turning into a steady defenseman 5 on 5 and a powerplay specialist with excellent skills, and a great complement to Andrei Markov. Still when contract time came, he got an offer of around $600,000. Instead, he took big money to go to Long Island. Who among us would say no to $4 million a season because they wanted to remain a Hab for $600,000? Please! I can't think of anything more laughable. The fans in Montreal are smart about the business end of the NHL like no other fan. Of the 21,000 who attend the games regularly, I would say 90 per cent could give you all the league salaries within a half million. They know what Streit took from the Islanders and how lousy his offer was to stay in Montreal. Yet, the fans booed. I couldn't believe it. What did Streit do wrong? I'll wait for an answer.

Kovalev to face boo-birds

To think that Alex Kovalev will get cheered when he didn't stay here because his Montreal offer was $4.5 million and his Ottawa offer was $5 million surprises me. There will be cheers. Of course, there will be, but don't think there won't be boos too. We got a sneak peak when the Sens and Habs played a pre-season game in Kanata. The many Habs fans who made the trip to the too far Ottawa suburb ripped him. I expect they'll be in full voice to rip him again Saturday night.

Should he be booed? For me, the answer always is no, if your only crime is seeking more money somewhere else. All in all, there's way too much booing of former Habs whose service is forgotten, and current Habs who don't get a boost from a boo.

Get used to it

Hockey is a business. Every fan if they had the talent to be a player would leave to a new team for an extra grand. The only guy who rapidly comes to mind who actually took the jersey over the dollar was Ray Bourque. The fact that he did made him a target for the Player's Association. They were incensed with Bourque that he would devalue his services and send a message to GM's "why can't you be more like Ray?" The gesture by Bourque made him a local hero, but a league-wide pariah. Thankfully, that passed too because Bourque truly was a hero for that gesture.

It's inevitable

My take is Kovalev will be booed and that will be sad. However, my prediction is he will be booed less than some others who will return. It will be very hard to hear Saku Koivu get booed here when he returns one day. That will be a sad moment for me. He gave a lot to this city. The night he came back to play after battling cancer and received the longest standing ovation since the Rocket will be tarnished a little when all those cheers turn to boos on that night.

Other boo-bird targets

The loudest boos will be reserved for guys like Mike Komisarek and Chris Higgins. 'You don't choose Toronto like Komisarek did,' say the Montreal fans. That's an insult. Higgins will get it pretty soundly too. The last quote Higgins gave as a Hab to me when they were eliminated in game four against Boston was this when I asked him what he thought of the fans: "Well, apart from the fact that they were throwing full and capped water bottles at our heads, I thought they were pretty good."

The Habs were never going to win that series with four key regulars out against the best team in the regular season in the East, and that the fans were that angry over a pretty good effort all things considered didn't make sense to me.

In the end, fans are fans. They pay their money. They can do whatever they please. I wish sometimes though that it pleased them to look at the man more and the uniform less.