Like the Caps, those 93 Habs also lost the first 2 games in Round One, to the Nordiques, with Roy letting in a couple of weak goals. The media said he should be traded and a Quebec coach said they had solved Roy. So then the Habs won the next 11 games, eliminating Quebec, sweeping Buffalo, and going up 3-0 on the Isles.
In the finals, Montreal won Games 3 and 4 on OT goals by John LeClair, who became the first player since Rocket Richard in 1951 to score overtime goals in back-to-back playoff games. I had moved to Vermont right before the 93 playoffs started and immediately became a Hockey Night in Canada addict, since we got CBC on cable. And when Vermont local and UVM alum LeClair came up huge, the entire state went crazy. That far north, the loyalties were split, but there were probably more Habs fans than Bruins fans.
And the the next year, there was the 94 series that's reminding me a little of this year - in that everyone pretty much assumed Game 5 was going to be the Rangers' coronation. They had already schedule the parade, but then blew Game 5 at home before getting beat bad in Game 6 at Vancouver. There was so much pressure going into Game 7 - in retrospect, it's easy to say everyone know Messier would lead them through, but at the time there was a lot of thinking that the Rangers would never end their jinx.