Montreal 2 Philadelphia 4 (Wachovia Centre) Flyers win the series 4-1.
by Rick Stephens, AllHabs.net
“Although we’ve come to the end of the road, still I can’t let you go, it’s unnatural, you belong to me, I belong to you .”
MONTREAL, QC — There are many different types of reactions to what happened tonight. There were tears, a good deal of anger, and disbelief.
Some fans quickly moved into problem-solving mode, speculating about possible off-season changes. Others preferred to savor a successful season.
I’m not ready to go there yet. I feel empty.
My good friend Veronica said it best, “I’m old enough (and deluded enough?) to still think that only the Cup is acceptable, every year. Still, I am proud of the Habs.”
Within a few days, we will start looking back at the season, and the just-completed playoff run. You know, that All Habs will be here as we discuss potential personnel moves, the amateur draft and free agency.
What about the players?
“I think in a few days’ time, when this all soaks in, we’ll be able to realize some of the steps that we made and the progress that we made as an organization,” said Josh Gorges. “Right now, it’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. All we’re thinking about is the loss.”
I agree with Josh. My mind is on tonight’s result. So, for now, as we have done, for the pre-season, 82 regular season games, and 19 playoff games, we’ll review the happenings on the ice. There’s plenty of time for the rest in the days to come.
The prescription for Game 5 for the Habs was to score first and score early. A soft goal only 59 seconds by Brian Gionta filled the bill. It quieted the crowd, put another hole in the Leighton-for-MVP campaign, and restored confidence for the Canadiens. The team scoring first had won every game in this series.
Two minutes later, Scott Gomez delivered a solid hit to Kimmo Timonen knocking him to the ice. Timonen was not amused and took a roughing penalty when he retaliated.
The Canadiens power-play had been their Achilles heel in the Eastern conference final, and provided the turning point of the game. Not only did the Habs fail to score with the man advantage, they gave up a demoralizing short-handed goal.
Let’s take a closer look at the power-play.
- Tomas Plekanec won the faceoff, but Marc-Andre Bergeron failed to keep the puck in. The Canadiens retrieved the puck and dumped it into the Flyers zone. Braydon Coburn cleared it past Bergeron and out of his end.
- Bergeron retrieved and slapped the puck back into the zone. Hamrlik set up Bergeron for a one-timer but it was blocked by Coburn. Chris Pronger ringed it around the boards. Bergeron tried to keep it in but was knocked to the ice by Mike Richards.
- Claude Giroux picked up the puck and set up Richards for a scoring chance. After a Jaroslav Halak save, Bergeron carried the puck and dumped it in. Glen Metropolit lost a puck battle to Giroux who cleared it down the ice with Bergeron caught at the blueline.
- Richards and Roman Hamrlik raced for the puck. They were met at the circle by Halak, who collided with Hamrlik. Halak lost his stick and the puck. Richards backhanded it in the empty goal.
The Flyers short-handed goal resulted from an an obvious puckhandling blunder by Halak. But, the descriptive analysis reveals that there were a handful of errors leading up to it. It was Flyers’ men versus a boy. Bergeron is simply not an NHL-caliber defensemen, offensively or defensively.
Late in the third period, the Canadiens had a chance to tie the game with a four minute man advantage, but couldn’t mount any attack with only one shot on goal. Glen Metropolit ended the advantage early by taking a tripping penalty.
If looking for a single culprit for the loss, it is the power-play that was 0-for-6 tonight, and 1-for-22, in the series. (The single goal was meaningless and scored at the end of Game 3 with a 5-on-3 advantage.)
The Canadiens have struggled all season to score 5-on-5 and relied on one of the best power-plays in the league. With it floundering against Philadelphia, the Habs could not compete. Credit should also be given to Fortress Flyers (borrowing a page from Montreal) who prevented the Canadiens from exploiting Philly’s goaltending deficiencies.
Montreal spent far too much of their time in the defensive zone and had trouble generating scoring chances on transition.
Some will be quick to knock Plekanec, Andrei Kostitsyn and Scott Gomez. Plekanec has shut down opposition top forwards and is the key to Canadiens’ penalty killing. Kostitsyn has a hard time getting in a groove when the coach is playing yo-yo with his line assignment and ice-time.
Gomez played well tonight making the game close with a goal in the third period. Gomez and Gionta each had a goal and an assist. Gionta led the team with seven shots on goal. Hal Gill was the star on defense with eight blocked shots.
While Halak could only be faulted on Philadelphia’s first goal, his save percentage in the game was .880 which is close to his series’ statistic. That’s not close to his performance earlier in the playoffs or what was required for the Canadiens to advance.
It should also be mentioned that the Habs just didn’t have the proper personnel in the line-up or in the right spots. Mathieu Darche wasn’t up to the pace or the challenge of playing on the first line.
The loss brought an abrupt end to a playoff run that was tantalizingly close to the Habs competing for the Stanley Cup. The only disappointment is that it has taken 17 years to get back here. In a 30 team league, with salary cap constraints, one wonders when the Canadiens will get their next chance.
“This hurts,” defenceman Josh Gorges said as he fought back tears. “To work this hard to get to where we are and then to come up short is tough to swallow because we know how close we were to where we were going.
Again, Josh is right. This hurts.
But Canadiens’ fans can be proud of their team who did not give up right to the end.
“We played hard for each other, we played hard for the organization, we played hard for the fans back in Montreal. There was no quit in us,” Gorges said.
Rocket’s three stars
1. Mike Richards
2. Arron Asham
3. Jeff Carter
Special mention: Brian Gionta, Scott Gomez, Hal Gill
Player quotes from wire services were used in this report.
(photo credit: Getty)
follow All Habs on Twitter and add us on Facebook
~This article is available for your listening convenience via All Habs OUT LOUD. Use the player below or download to take it with you from the link in the sidebar.~
TONS of pride for what the Canadiens did. When you can count yourself among the final 4, something has gone right.
Still, as you say, this hurts. We've waited a long time for this, and who knows when it will come around again. It could be as soon as next year, but chances are that it won't.
The best part of the loss is that MAB is gone. We won't see him in a Habs jersey again. Thank goodness for small victories.
But what exactly happened in this Eastern Final? You said it – the special teams failed miserably. 1 for 22 is not good enough (ask the Capitals). We can look to the calamity of Marc Andre Bergeron and the absence of Andrei Markov as major weak points on the power play. Markov's absence also helped contribute to a miserable penalty kill. Subban inherited many of his minutes, and as impressed and hopeful as we all are for what may come, his rawness was something the Flyers exploited.
And what of the Habs regular season Mr. Everything? Tomas Plekanec did a good job in derailing the Capitals season. He didn't completely shut down Ovechkin or Backstrom, but he did help limit their destructive powers, and contributed 8 points of his own. From there, he limited the world's best player in Crosby to 6 or so points, but saw his own contributions slip to just 4 assists in 7 games. Against Philly, he was largely ineffective. Defensively he was ok, but the Flyers scoring threats are far too distributed for 1 guy to handle on his own. By then he was out of gas (and possibly hurt) and was held pointless in 5 games. He was far from a lock in the faceoff circle winning only 47.1% of his draws through 19 games. If it turns out that he was significantly hurt, I this is all moot. However, until then, in a year when he's looking for a fat, long-term deal, I think he should have been able to generate more in terms of offense. I have no idea what to do with him. There are no other centers available, but I will cry myself to sleep if they sign him for more than 5 million per year. He's not worth that much.
I've called out Gomez, but I'll eat crow on him. Despite his lack of goals. He showed grit, and leadership. He killed penalties. He showed why he's won 2 cups, and showed why Gainey signed him. His contract will haunt the Habs down the line, but at least we know he will elevate when it counts.
As for AK46…I'll respectfully disagree. Talented as he is, he needed to do more. Taking away his 4 points in 1 game, he had 4 assists in 18 games. Someone with his talent should have fluked his way to better. 29 shots in 19 games is not a good stat for a sniper. It's not like he had a drastic reduction in ice time (15:59 regular season vs 14:14 playoff). His role never changes. Use size. Shoot puck. He did neither nearly often enough. I want this guy to stick around, but he's not helping his cause.
How about Pouliot? Have you ever seen someone regress so badly, or care less than this guy? I don't even care enough about this guy to write any more about him.
My summer project will include getting t-shirts of Gionta, Gorges, and a couple others. I've always wanted to dress like a superhero and not look like a dweeb doing it. Now I don't have to. We have some guys fully worthy of admiration from all Habs fans of any age.
Proud, yes. But I feel empty. I don't like how the game was lost yesterday, ESPECIALLY after how game 4 went. We were all gathered 'round the TV eating BBQ ribs when that comedy of errors of a shorthanded Richards goal happened. I was so upset about it that I just buried myself in my ribs.
Interestingly enough I think that play summed up the year: a costly mistake that completely took the wind out of their sails, and Hamr colliding with a goalie.
When it was all over I told my brother "Oh but the last time the Flyers kicked our asses in the playoffs it was aaaaall Price's fault eh?" in a mocking sarcastic tone from all the idiot callers and commentators who saw fit to heap blame on a kid just 'cause they don't like Gainey the GM for some reason, noting that the Habs #1 powerplay back then (similarily that team's bread and butter) also failed to connect on a critically lengthy 5-on-3 situation that could have maybe turned the series around. The major bummer back then was they HAD Markov in the lineup in that game, but he didn't really look interested.
I loved the way Gomez and Gio played last night. It's basically what they've been doing all year. Gomez, like a basketball player just barges through, and while everyone is watching him they forget about Gio. Even though they only finished two of their chances, they tried hard to win that game, but holy crap they can't be out there for 60 minutes! Someone else needed to get a dirty goal in there somewhere. Crash. The. Net. Looking at you, 3rd or 4th line. Sure they've done a lot this run, but on again off again.
I don't take much stock on the team having a captain as much as I heard about it today. It was a beautiful sight to see the 4 "captains" of the Hamilton Bulldogs go up together to accept the Calder. I was hoping to see the same with the Habs. Gill, Gio, Gomez, and Gorges (we've moved on from K to G eh?). But even the A floated around. Maybe 8 captains would have walked up and completely overwhelmed Gary Bettman. That would have been a lovely sight…
For a team like ours, they need belief and hard work and a convenient convergence of events. I wanted the Caps because I knew they could beat them (I thought they'd beat them in 5 but they screwed up 2 games badly). I wasn't so sure about the Pens, but I knew there was something wonky on the backend from watching not only the Ottawa series but a lot of their games (I watch a lot of hockey). If the Bruins hadn't screwed up, I believe the Habs could have taken them. This one was totally in the Flyers favour, even though the Habs could have won it if they could have just made Leighton's life more difficult. It feels like they were thinking too much, or were afraid of making a mistake. And seeing Plekanec shrug away at center ice last night really made me upset. That's not playoff hockey… Martin's rope-a-dope system works best against structured opponents because you kind of know how they're going to set up. It's not good against a tough, chaotic, puck-hungry opponents like the Flyers or a healthy Hurricanes, even the cocky Leafs. Those type of teams, you give them an inch and they'll take the whole rink. When the Habs got aggressive, it felt like they had the puck for hours and looked ready to win it, but a flubbed shot or a fanned pass, and that's all folks…
Comments are closed.