How far Hab fans have fallen, going nuts over a first-round win

OK, it's definitely and obviously despicable that Montreal "fans" went overboard and vandalized the downtown last night after the Montreal Canadiens finally subdued the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of their playoff series.

The more pertinent point, however, is this. Habs fans are about on the level of Toronto Maple Leafs fans now, dancing in the streets over a first-round playoff victory. First round. You have got to be kidding. What an embarrassment.

Oh, and slight apology to Habs fans -- Leafs fans go dancing into the streets after a victory in a single game in the first round. If they happen to have even made the playoffs.

But Habs fans doing this in the first round? Sacre bleu. Used to take a Stanley Cup to prompt such action. That happened in 1993. Before that,  back in the old, regular Cup-winning days, Canadiens fans would have been trashing things because their club had taken so long to eliminate a first-round playoff opponent, particularly perennial personal playoff patsy Boston. They would have been angry at their club, not celebrating it. But now we have transplanted goofball baseball mascots like Youppi! in the stands, contrived towel waving and all the other accoutrements that make the Bell Centre, unlike the old fabled Montreal Forum, just like any other run-of-the-mill professional hockey rink.

Whatever happened to that good, old time, arrogance of expectation and entitlement?

In those good old days, a first-round playoff win was greeted with a shrug. It was expected. Demanded, even. So were Stanley Cups, which in my memory never prompted riots, until the 1993 event.

How standards of excellence have fallen. Almost makes you want to turn in your Hab fan credentials. Almost.