Walt's playoff recap: Montréal Canadiens vs Ottawa Senators

Ed. here. Walt's mind and/or heart has been elsewhere this week, hence the dire dearth of new posts on WWW. From wherever he is, he has sent a number of dispatches, of which this is the first.

Walt and Poor Len were MIA for several hours on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday evenings, watching their beloved Montréal Canadiens defeat the Ottawa Senators in the first three games of one the eight NHL playoff series. Scores were 4-3, 3-2 (in overtime) and, last night, 2-1 (also in overtime). The Habs gave up the first goal and trailed 1-0 at the end of the first period in all three games, but came back to win.

Regular readers of WWW will know that Poor Len watches carefully the every move of P.K. Subban, the PC winner of the Norris Trophy a couple of years ago, the one whom the Montreal Gazette's Dave Stubbs thinks -- even now -- is a "transcendant" defenceman. Here's what we saw this week.

In Game 1, Mr. Subban led the team in penalties, the second being a 5-minute major plus a game misconduct for a vicious two-handed lumberjack slash on Ottawa's Mark Stone, causing a hairline fracture of the Stoney wrist. Les Glorieux managed to win the game without Subban, with Jeff Petry filling the gap without doing anything stupid.

In Game 2, P.K. whistled a cannonading slapshot [Hello Danny Gallivan, wherever you are! Ed.] past Andrew Hammond to score the Habs' second goal. The Hamburglar heard the 85-mph rocket coming at actually ducked to avoid being decapitated. Very good. But Montréal fans and coach Michel Thérrien still wish that Subban would pass the puck occasionally, especially on the power play, which continues to struggle.

Last night, Mr. Stubbs's home boy was, as usual, out of position when Ottawa scored its lone goal. P.K. took a high, hard, open-ice check from Ottawa's Patrick Wiercioch. Bent on revenge, he charged over to the boards in an attempt to crunch Sens star Erik Karlsson. That left Subban's buddy Andrei Markov -- who planted a kiss on P.K. after the Friday night goal -- alone against two attackers. Result, Ottawa goal.

Poor Len stands by his recent re-evaluations of P.K. Subban, and adds that if he (Subban) ever learns to play defence, he'll become an asset to the Canadiens, rather than the liability he is now.