MONTREAL -- Consider two teams, two goals, and a most unexpected outcome. The Habs versus Boston at the Bell Centre. Game five. Montreal up three games to one. The local table set for a victory party.
In the first period, Alex Kovalev's masterpiece, as aesthetically pleasing as anything you're likely to see in these NHL playoffs, right down to his long blonde locks billowing in the breeze Lafleur-like, thanks to Zdeno Chara having temporarily liberated Kovalev's head from his helmet.
A graceful sweep behind the red line, a measured slow motion cruise over the Bruins' blueline, a short pass into the corner, a straight line to the net, a high return pass knocked down by glove then buried elegantly on the backhand.
In Montreal, where style points are awarded in everyday life, they cheered their enigmatic superstar not just for opening the scoring, but for the élan with which he did it.
The sense of manifest destiny hangs heavy in the air here right now, the belief that all of the karma is right for a long dreamed-of return to glory.
Comfortably ahead of a team they've owned all year long - a team that some watched at the morning skate yesterday and saw what they thought was the unmistakable hollow-eyed look of the doomed - Kovalev's goal was the cherry on top, the little slice of fois gras on the side. What else could you say but, "Bravo!"
The second goal, early in the third period, was a true dog's breakfast.
Montreal goalie Carey Price snaring a loose puck from a scramble, holding it in his trapper for a second. Sensing clear sailing ahead, sensing a chance to seize the advantage, he dropped it right in front of his crease and moved to play it down the ice. A kid mistake by a kid goaltender who in his first NHL season and playoffs has seemed like anything but.
Clearing the puck off a confused teammate, seeing it bounce back towards the open net, watching Glen Metropolit - the most surprised guy in the building, judging by the look on his face - take a whack at it in mid-air and knock it into the Canadiens' net.
Up went the Bruins, 2-1, en route to a 5-1 victory, with Price looking terribly soft on goals three, four and five, and the crowd booing as the final seconds ticked off. What else could you say but, "Let us now praise Claude Julien."
Praise the Boston head coach, but praise the Boston players as well, of course, for scrapping back in this series after seeming a bit shell-shocked in game one, the 12th of 13 consecutive losses to the Canadiens dating back to last season.
They have been in every minute since, and could have considered themselves unlucky not to have come away with another win. Though as an eighth seed going up against a one, returning to the loudest, most intimidating building in the league, there was also every reason to surrender to the inevitable.
There was every reason to surrender a whole bunch of times this year, with terrible injuries and an obvious deficit in scoring talent, during phases of the schedule when it seemed Boston was everyone's favourite candidate to cough up a playoff spot.
Julien's not a flashy guy. Doesn't preen. Isn't prone to grand flourishes of ego. Just does his job and just tends to win more than he loses, which was the case in junior hockey and in the AHL before he finally got his break in Montreal.
That ended when Bob Gainey wanted to bring in his own coach, Guy Carbonneau - understandably. Less understandable was the bizarre, late-season firing from his next gig in New Jersey, when Lou Lamoriello, who gets credit for doing all kinds of things right, got one very wrong, messing needlessly with a 100-point team.
In Boston, few liked his chances entering this season, and that was before Patrice Bergeron's year was ended by concussion. Somehow Julien got them this far, and right now, he is doing his best work.
It isn't pretty, but that's how these Bruins have to play. They won't score five many nights. They will still be hard pressed to fight all of the way back against the Canadiens. They can claim a moral victory any time now.
"I'm not a believer in that stuff," Julien said last night. "Anything but a win is going to be a disappointment."
But this is where coaches really earn their keep, turning the emotional tide, boiling the game down to its essentials, making something whole out of spare parts.
Whatever happens from here on, Julien has earned his.
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