Let’s Give Three Jeers To Montreal

Do you hear that sound? No, it’s not the Montreal equipment men sharpening the skate blades of the Canadiens. It’s the club’s fans sharpening their guillotines.

If things don’t change soon in the land of Roy and Turgeon and Recchi, heads are going to roll.

The Montreal Canadiens, the most successful team in the history of the NHL, dropped their third straight game Thursday night - to the Tampa Bay Lightning, for heaven’s sake - and things are getting ugly in the Great White North.

Fans are booing goaltender Patrick Roy, a future Hall of Famer. They’re cheering derisively when the Canadiens score a rare goal. And they’re getting impatient for a turnaround.

And they have good reason for their dissatisfaction. The Canadiens, who have won a record 23 Stanley Cups, have been outscored 16-3 in their first three games and are being victimized by every stroke of bad luck imaginable.

Montreal was burned for three goals in a span of 3 minutes, 13 seconds in the second period against Florida on Wednesday in a 6-1 loss, and Roy allowed a goal Thursday against Tampa Bay when Petr Klima bounced a shot from behind the net off one of Roy’s pads and into the goal.

Ouch.

None of the Canadiens knows what to make of the terrible start. The best Roy could say after the 3-1 loss to the Lightning was, “We work well in practice.”

The rest of the NHL is amazed, too.

“I couldn’t even imagine what it’s like there now,” said Flyers defenseman Kevin Haller, a former Canadien. “When we lost three or four games in a row, there was trouble. It’s just insane. People will be counting them out already. They’ll be wanting Serge Savard’s head. They’ll be wanting Jacques Demers’ head, Patrick Roy’s head. They’ll want trades.”

Savard, the club’s general manager, and Demers, the coach, don’t seem to have any answers, either. It’s so bad that everybody is taking shots at the 1993 champions.

“We thought they would come in here and play a big game” on Wednesday, said Florida’s Jesse Belanger, another former Canadien. “But it was just the opposite.”