Do Habs deserve to make the playoffs?

Its Monday nite 11:58pm. I haven't posted a blog in a while; figured its a good time.

Let me take you back to last Monday. 10:50am: I call PJ Stock and advise him Christobal Huet has been involved in on-ice training at Concordia. PJ, tells me he heard that already and hangs up.....nice guy that PJ. I enter the studio 5 minutes later and say why did you hang up? PJ laughs and says, ''Tony just because he's training doesn't mean he'll be back, he's out for the season.'' I look at him and say, ''No, he's not, I have been told that he'll be back.''

Next day: Tuesday, March 13th. Huet, tells the media at the Bell Centre that he was at Concordia for a few days and didnt face any shots. I know for a fact that Huet trained there for 5 days and faced a lot of shots. I know that because I found out on Monday that a buddy of mine took some shots on him. Anyway, the Montreal Media continues to say Huet is unlikely to come back. At 12:10pm, I say, ''If the Canadiens are still in the playoff hunt, Huet will start vs the NYR on March 27.'' I was sure of that as well because someone close to the situation told me Huet would be 100% by then. Now, Im hearing that a fellow member of the media said over the weekend on the CBC that Huet will probably start Saturday, March 24 vs Washington. Folks, just remember where you heard it first that Huet would play again this season.

Friday nite: I thought the Canadiens blew a great opportunity to make up some ground. After 2 periods of play, Toronto trails Washington 3-1 and Tampa is losing by the same score to Buffalo. Meanwhile, Montreal is tied at 2 with Pittsburgh. The Habs needed to take advantage but gave up 4 goals in the third. Once again, David Aebischer was simply horrendous. He's played his last game for Montreal. Nice young man, awful goaltender.

Saturday nite: Big character win for Montreal beating Toronto 3-2 in a shootout. The catalysts: Everybody. Especially, Francis Bouillon, Jaroslav Halak, Saku Koivu and Andrei Kostitsyn. Bouillon's fight with Darcy Tucker lifted the team. As for goalie Jaroslav Halak if it wasn't for him Montreal would have lost in regulation. And, Koivu and Kostitsyn, got the job done in the shootout. The win was huge, but if the Canadiens want to make the playoffs, they cant give teams they're battling with a point.

9 games to go; Canadiens are 2 points out of the playoffs. Of course, it would be great for the city if they make it to the dance; but to tell you the truth, I dont think the Canadiens deserve to make the playoffs. Why not, you ask? Simple. (a) They have conceded more goals than they have scored. Goal differential of -17. (b) 6 of their top 7 point getters are minus players, accounting for -89 and (c) when you are scoreboard watching this time of year hoping for help its because as a team you didnt get the job done. Add it all up, its not playoff worthy.

Sunday afternoon: I dropped by La Pizzeria Etc in Blainville. Sheldon Souray is one of the owners. Great pizza; check it out. Sheldon was there and so were about 500 Canadiens fans. They were chanting, ''Go Habs Go'' and ''Souray Souray Souray''. It was nuts. Sheldon was there for quite some time and signed hundreds of autographs and took hundreds of pictures. I have seen him do this more than once. He is an awesome person and IMO the ''Real Captain'' of the team. Thats not a shot at Koivu, either. Everywhere I go, people ask me will Souray be back next year? Sheldon has never told me this, but my gut feeling is as much as he loves it here, he's done his time and he will move on. Only time will tell.....

In ending, I want to say what a great time I had when I took part in the 1st ever Bell Centre Challenge courtesy of Molson Export. I thought we had a great team. In goal, Leo Luongo (Roberto's younger brother), Defence Pair 1 was composed of Arduino Patulli and Dennis Kwan, our other pairing was Sean Campbell and Giorgio Porcari. Up front, Line 1: Lucio De Martinis, Ben Raspa and Tony Aversano. The second line had Anthony Giambagno centering Jimmy Papapostolou and Billy Karagiannitis. And, the 3rd line had myself on Left Wing with Aldo Polisena on the right side and Domenic Sollazzo in the middle. Our first game was a hard fought win over PJ Stock's team. PJ, did a lot of trash talking before the game, but I warned him my team would do our talking on the ice and we squeaked out a 3-1 victory. We then played the Morning Show and I picked up a goal. We were up 3 nothing when i was awarded a penalty shot. I dont think too many people expected me to score, but I did my best Jussi Jokinen impersonation and it worked. As a matter of fact, everything went my way in that game. We beat them 5 nothing and I was on for every goal. Unfortunately, we lost our last game to Melnicks team. I wont make escuses BUT I will say that it was our second straight game, meanwhile Melnicks team had just over 30 mins rest before the game. We played hard, we were down 1 nothing with 3 minutes left and eventually lost 3 zip. They were good, but I wouldn't mind playing them again. I have too, I haven't digested that loss.

Getting late, Im going to hit the sack.......big show tomorrow,,,,its Gameday. Boston visits Montreal. Enjoy the game everybody. I will talk to you in a couple of days. Peace.