Montreal Canadiens Fans or "How to destroy a young career"

(Photo by Richard Wolowicz/Getty Images)

This is my own opinion. Feel free to disagree of course.

What happened last night with the Habs was the result of an entire season of disappointment. But what I want to say here has nothing to do with player performances.

Right now, I’m talking to the fans.

Montreal fans pretend to be the best fans in the league. I beg to differ.

I’m a huge hockey fan and have been following the Habs since I was seven years old. Although I feel our expectations about the teams success were too high, I’m just as angry and disappointed about this season. But there is no excuse for what I’ve seen and heard last night.

As I said, I’m not even talking about players. Yes, they were bad. They played without energy and motivation. But the fans made it worse.

Montreal fans may be the loudest, and may be the most emotional about their team. But are easily the most ruthless and degrading in the whole league. Here, in Montreal, fans can easily destroy a player’s confidence or even worse, their career. And I think we destroyed a part of Carey Price this year.

How can we pretend to be true fans when a player struggles, he becomes a target for fans harassment and media scourges.

Price had every right to raise his arms when he was applauded by the crowd after a routine stop. All year fans have pointed at him as the main reason of the team's struggles. My finger has always been pointed at Bob Gainey, all 10 of them actually.

I call that bad management. It’s not just bad goaltending.

Does this situation remind you of another? True fans should remember what happened to Patrick Roy—and mostly, the consequences.

Back then, fans blamed Roy for bad performances when the team in front of him was just horrible. The blame should’ve been dumped entirely on coach Mario Tremblay for not pulling Roy out of the game after he allowed eight goals in a 9-1 loss to the Red Wings.

But the fans blamed Patrick for his performances and booed him. The result? Patrick never played another game in Montreal after that—and the team was horrible for the next 10 years.

What’s happening now could just as easily throw Carey Price out of Montreal. Carey can’t even walk the streets of Montreal without a bodyguard and get insulted—and threatened by fans no less!

So what are you fans trying to prove exactly? Are you trying to destroy his confidence? Are you trying to make him hate Montreal? Are you trying to get him traded?

And what if he does get traded thanks to the fans attitude and then develops into a star goaltender somewhere else? What then? Who’s to blame?

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