The Society of Habs Fans Who Feel Bad for Vesa

The first and last time I will post a picture of Vesa

It's the job of every Habs fan to hate the Leafs. I learned to hate the Leafs before I even knew anything about the Habs from a parent who hardly watched hockey growing up. It's just in our blood as Habs fans to despise everything blue and white. As part of that hate, it's our job to laugh hysterically every time the Leafs lose and point out that "truculent" doesn't mean "head the puck into your own net".

However, there are times when even Habs fans must admit that a situation is just that sad that it deserves some sympathy (or at least empathy. Or something). The situation I'm talking about of course, is that of Vesa Toskala. For a long time now, we Habs fans have been able to take particular delight in the fact that Vesa is the king of the Failtenders (heck, I think Vesa spawned the term to begin with). Leafs fail is a beautiful thing to see and Vesa has been personally responsible for a lot of it.

But a strange thing happened between the Leafs losing 7-2 and 4-1 to the Rags and Avs respectively. Habs fans across the blogosphere displayed a certain... sympathy for Vesa. How this happened is cause for much speculation. Maybe it's because Habs fans feel bad dissing a team that is doing pitifully when their own team doesn't have much of a leg to stand on. Or maybe it's because it's just too sad to put the blame of 42 years of epic fail on one poor little Finnish goalie (although apparently it's okay to put 16 years of fail on a poor little Canadian goalie *coughs*). I mean, he wasn't even born when the Leafs starting failing for crying out loud. And he definitely was NOT in nets when Komisarek headed the puck into the back of the net for the Avs. Whatever the reason, the fact of the matter is that there plenty of Habs fans who feel bad for him.

That's where this society comes in. We are The Society for Habs Fans Who Feel Bad for Vesa. Basically we just hang around expressing our sympathy at the plight of the poor Finnish goalie.

Disclaimer: We do not have sympathy for the Leafs as an organization. We do not feel bad for or empathize with Brian Burke, Ron Wilson and everyone else who wears that horrendous logo on their jersey (for the most part anyway). We reserve the right to change our minds about Vesa should he suddenly turn into the next greatest goalie. We also reserve the right to bash Vesa should he be in nets for any game versus the Habs. We do not endorse Vesa's man-purse. It scares the crap out of EP.