Defense
Both teams gave up 222 goals during the regular season and there isn’t as much disparity between the defense corps as there is with the forwards. As a group, the Canadiens might have a slight edge if Mike Komisarek and Francis Bouillon return to the lineup for the series while the Bruins will get a boost with defenseman Andrew Alberts rounding into playing shape (he played the last 3 regular season games) after missing part of the season with a concussion. The possible return of Andrew Ference and Bobby Allen will also help the Bruins cause with some much needed foot speed on the blueline. Aaron Ward and Zdeno Chara are very solid playoff performers who understand what it takes to win in the playoffs and should be a steadying factor for the younger players.
The key to any playoff series will always be the match-up situations especially on defense. Here is where the Canadiens have the edge and it all points back to their huge advantage with their depth at the forward position. The Canadiens can shutdown the Bruins top two lines with the Komisarek/Markov and Hamrlik/O’Byrne tandems while the Bruins will have a more difficult time containing the Canadiens top three lines.
Overall, both teams are getting healthier on the blueline and there isn’t as much of an advantage either way. The Canadiens have the edge when it pertains to manufacturing offense on the back end, regular season head to head performances and foot speed while the Bruins have the edge in overall size and physicality on defense (especially if Komisarek doesn’t return to the Habs lineup).
Defense: slight edge to the Canadiens for their very solid regular season performance against the Bruins while the same can’t be said about Boston’s performance against the Habs.
Goaltending
The bottomline is simple, without solid if not spectacular goaltending, most teams will not advance very far in the playoffs. Just ask the Senators how comfortable they are with their goaltending situation going into the 2008 playoffs…….not very comfortable!!!
The goaltending is a slightly unknown playoff quantity for both teams but once again if the regular season is any indicator then Carey Price and Tim Thomas should play positive roles for their teams. Both goaltenders have no prior NHL playoff experience which is the unknown factor going into this series .
Carey Price does have the pedigree of winning and performing in high pressure situations like backstopping Team Canada to a World Junior Championship in 2007 and leading the Hamilton Bulldogs to a Calder Cup Championship in the same year…………no small accomplishments!!! With these pressure packed situations under his belt and his calm, cool disposition to go with it, there shouldn’t be any let down in his stellar play going into the playoffs.
Carey Price has had an unbelievable rookie season (24-12-3 .920 save % and a 2.56 GAA) with only Tom Barrasso, Patrick Roy and Ken Dryden getting more than 20 wins in their rookie seasons. He has also been absolutely lights out for the Canadiens since Bob Gainey traded Cristobal Huet to the Capitals at the trade deadline. During the post Huet era, Price is 12-3 with a 2.13 GAA and a .936 save percentage, needless to say, Carey Price is in a groove. Can you remember another Habs goalie in the Martin Brodeur era who actually beat the goaltending legend twice in one season?…….I didn’t think so!!!
The Bruins also have an inexperienced playoff commodity in Tim Thomas heading into their series against the Canadiens. Thomas has also had a very good season (28-19-6 2.41 GAA and a .921 save %) and has played well against every team except the Canadiens which has to be slightly disconcerting for the Bruins. Thomas’ statistics against the Canadiens are downright awful: GP-6 GA-24 Save %.877 (171/195) and a GAA of 4.00…..not reassuring numbers by any means.
Thomas can play well if the defense in front of him wasn’t so porous in the games against the Habs. He was left alone quite often (Kovalev’s two highlight reel goals come to mind) and didn’t get too much support from his teammates. Don’t get me wrong, he was soft on some of the goals as well and will need to be substantially better if the Bruins are to advance past the Canadiens in the first round.
Goaltending: the Canadiens have the better goaltending with the Price/Halak tandem vs the Thomas/Auld duo and if the regular season trend continues into the playoffs, it will be a short lived playoff series.
The Intangibles
There are a few intangibles which could play a significant role in the series:
- Will both teams get some key players back from injuries and how much of a contribution will they make in the playoffs? Players like Bergeron, Savard, Bouillon, Koivu, Komisarek and Ryder……who plays and how well?
- Canadiens and Bruins playoff inexperience: the Canadiens and the Bruins have two of the least playoff experienced teams of the 16 current playoff teams. There are some savvy playoff players like Roman Hamrlik(55), Alex Kovalev(100), Saku Koivu(43), Bryan Smolinski(100), Mathieu Dandenault(70) and Patrice Brisebois(87) but beyond this group there are some rather inexperienced young players. The Bruins have even less experience throughout their lineup with 11 players never playing in the NHL playoffs. The Habs have 10 players who have never played in an NHL playoff game. As Bob Gainey stated, it will be a crash course in “playoffs 101” for some of his players.
- Can the Bruins get beyond the obvious psychological playing edge the Canadiens hold over them with 11 straight wins and a totally dominate regular season performance against them.
- Guy Carbonneau’s playoff inexperience as a head coach.
After all is said and written on the talk shows and in the newspapers, it really all come down to who want it more, who will be willing to make more sacrifices and what team performs to it’s fullest potential on the ice………..Canadiens win this series in five at the Bell Centre.
