Article content

We’re a tough bunch, those who follow hockey in this town. We take a first-place hockey team and carve it like a Thanksgiving turkey. We watch a tough, grinding overtime road win over the Red Wings and complain because it was 2-1 and not 12-1.

Shoot, back in the day we even booed Larry Robinson.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Jack Todd: Time for everyone to get off Pacioretty's back Back to video

I came to this town in the spring of 1971, just in time to see Jean Béliveau win his last Stanley Cup. In the 45 years since, I’ve seen only one star player get a free pass: Guy Lafleur partied like Prohibition was coming back, played like a demon and was never booed.

Enter Maximillian Kolenda Pacioretty, stage left. “Patches,” to those who love him (and there are plenty who do) is in the throes of what Montreal’s notoriously critical fans consider a difficult season. It started with Team USA, when John Tortorella decided to go Full Jerk on Pacioretty. Tortorella’s tactics, predictably, backfired. Pacioretty wilted under the criticism and Team USA showed less “compete” than you might have expected from Team Latvia.