Ed. here. In last week's confusion about who was doing what in the absence of Walt, our National Sports Editor, Poor Len Canayen, didn't get a chance to expound on the Montréal Canadiens chances of advancing through the National Hockey League playoffs. He is just about wetting himself with joy and optimism, so I'll turn the keyboard over to him... NOW!
Tank youse, Hed. Because of the "pause" in the NHL's regular season, the playoffs this year are different from years before, and I don't just mean playing in August! Instead of the top eight teams in each division playing down to the final four and final two, the league started with the top twelve teams in each divison. So the Habs barely squeaked into the series, as the No. 12 seed, meaning that they go against the top seeds in each round, starting with the Pittsburgh Penguins in the "play-in" round.
To the surprise of many, including perhaps themselves, les Glorieux polished off Sid the Kid and the mighty Pens, 3 games to 1. I'll turn it over, now, to Adam Susser and the gang at the Montreal Gazette's Hockey Inside Out, to analyse how they did and the outlook for the confrontation with the Philthydelphia Flyers.
That video was recorded before Wednesday night's game, which the Flyers won 2-1. The Habs got off to a slow start, as they did in the first two games against the Pittsburghers, and allowed the first goal around the five-minute mark of the first period. But they woke up towards the end of the first and proved that they could skate with the Penguins, with Captain Shea Weber finally scoring a power-play goal in the second. Unfortunately the Pens responded with a pinball-type goal just a few second later, and made the 2-1 lead stand up for the win.
The Habs played well enough to win, but only for 50 minutes or so. And sometime that evening -- if it was during the game I didn't see it -- coach Claude Julien had a heart attack and was rushed to the hospital, where he had a stent put in on Thursday. Get well soon, Claude! We're pullin' for ya! That left assistant coach Kirk Muller in charge for yesterday's second game. It turned out all he had to do was say "Go out and win it for Coach Claude!", et voilà.
Yesterday afternoon's game was as lopsided as the 5-0 final score indicates, as Montréal put on a real clinic for the (perhaps) over-confident Flyers. Jesperi Kotkaniemi (mentioned favourable in the video) scored twice, as did Tomas "Tuna" Tatar, and Joel Armia potted one, so for once the Habs didn't needed their defencemen only to do their job at the blue line, which they did. Carey Price was full value for his 7th careeer playoff shutout, stopping 30 shots.
The game was a real team effort for la Sainte Flannelle, with only four skaters not getting on the score sheet. Even Victor Mete got an assist, he who has scored only two (2) goals in his entire career with the Habs. The other defenceman whose game has improved markedly (as noted by the HI/O panel) is Brett Kulak, meaning that the Habs now have four reliable D-men, with the other two -- Mete and Xavier Ouellet -- playing well enough.
I don't know that I'm ready to predict a Montréal win, but I'm mighty encouraged, and looking forward to Sunday night's close encounter of the third kind. Until next time, keep yer stick on the hice!
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