MTL vs BOS

What a journey this has been for Patrice Brisebois.

From winning the Stanley Cup with his beloved Montreal Canadiens in his rookie year, to being vilified and
booed mercilessly by his own fans in his hometown, to having his GM come out and defend him, to being
essentially driven out of town to play for the Colorado Avalanche and, finally, to nearly having his career come to an end last year.

And now this.

Another chapter in Brisebois’ love-hate relationship with the hockey faithful of Quebec was written Tuesday
night in Boston when his one-timer from just inside the blue line rocketed past Tim Thomas and provided
Montreal with the 1-0 margin it needed to take a 3-1 lead in the series.

That shot, Brisebois said after practice at the Bell Centre on Wednesday, did not come out of nowhere.
He said he couldn’t help but think while taking the team charter back to Montreal last night about all the extra time he put in after practice this season shooting pucks with assistant coaches Doug Jarvis and Kirk Muller.

He was a healthy scratch 30 times and missed another nine games to injury this season, and it’s normal for those guys to be putting in a bit of overtime at practice. But not every 37-year-old in his 15th season would be
so determined.

“All those shots I took turned into a goal last night,” Brisebois said. “I don’t know how many shots I took, but that was the right one.”

To get an idea of just how unlikely Brisebois’ story is, you need to go back exactly a year when he was
watching the playoffs on television, likely lying on the couch.

“Last year at this time, I basically wasn’t able to walk because I had my second surgery on my back,” he said. “I had a lot of question marks about whether or not I should retire. But I love what I do.”

Bob Gainey, the same man who came to Brisebois’ defence in 2003, was the first NHL GM to offer him a
contract this summer. But that contract came with the provision that Brisebois wouldn’t play every game,
that he was being brought in to help the club’s youth movement along.

“He knew I could still help the team,” Brisebois said, “and not just on the ice.”

Well, now Brisebois is definitely helping the team on the ice. He skated Wednesday with Montreal’s top power play
unit, replacing Mark Streit who was given a therapy day. It’s entirely possible, however, that Brisebois will find himself filling that same role in Game 5 on Thursday, because Streit has not been playing his best hockey in the series and the power play is sputtering along at a 9.5 per cent clip.

The one quality Brisebois has always had, even when his negative qualities outweighed the positive, was
that he can put pucks on net. His shots from the point aren’t normally the hardest in the league (though Tuesday night’s howitzer was something to behold), but they are generally low and accurate, perfect for deflections and rebounds.

Bryan Smolinski said Wednesday, after having skated with the second power play unit in practice, that the
Canadiens need to “wake up and realize what’s worked for us, and it’s getting shots on goal from our back
end.”

Brisebois, it would appear, is the best candidate to do just that.

“Special teams is so huge in the playoffs, it can make the difference between a win and a loss,” Brisebois
said. “So to be a part of that would be very satisfying.”

After everything he has gone through to get to this point, “satisfying” is a huge understatement.