You couldn’t help but laugh.
When Carey Price misplayed the puck in the dying seconds of the Montreal Canadiens’ season-ending 4-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs, allowing Patrick Marleau to score, there was no anger. Or, at least there shouldn’t have been.
No, the place for anger was months ago. Denial, too. Usually when a season ends, unless you’re the Stanley Cup champion, fans are frustrated. But not for Canadiens fans. It wasn’t a sense of despair or what went wrong. It was relief.
This season couldn’t have gone much worse.