CANADIENS
Montreal

SENATORS
Ottawa

Game Report

For those who contend that the 2014-15 Canadiens are much more than Carey Price, you would have a hard time proving it using Game 6. Price made 43 saves for the shutout turning aside the best the Senators had to throw at him.  Granted, the Habs defense did a better job of steering attackers out of his vision (and staying out of the way themselves) but Senators still had scoring chances, and lots of them, from right in Price’s kitchen.

From the stats pack below, you can see that the Canadiens were outshot 43-20 in the game.  What isn’t apparent is that Montreal only managed  seven shots on goal in the final 40 minutes. But even more startling is that from the time that Brendan Gallagher scored the winning goal in the first period, the Canadiens were outshot 39-9.

That’s a long time to play in one’s own end. Habs fans collectively exclaimed, ‘Thank you Carey Price.’

Funny, isn’t it, that for this entire series, the narrative in the national media has been about the pair of Ottawa goaltenders: Andrew Hammond, the 20-1-2 phenom with ‘better numbers than Price’s’ and Craig Anderson, the supposed Canadiens’ kryptonite. And yet it is Price who single-handedly carried his team to the second round.

The local media was no better. The talk radio buffoon, famous for his faux rants, dissed Price for his performance in Game 5, saying that he gave up soft goals and appeared to give up on a breakaway goal by Erik Condra.  His coattail-riding booth mate said that Price was only ordinary for the last 20 per cent of the season. Perhaps soccer is your sport, guys.

The truth is that for five of the six games of this series, Price outshone his counterpart and by a wide margin. So when will he get credit?

“If I was playing against him, I would think, man, that’s a good goalie.”  — former Canadiens GM Bob Gainey

And maybe that’s where the recognition will originate, the players, coaches and executives around the league who have to face him.  Two of the best coaches in the game, Mike Babcock and Ken Hitchcock spoke glowingly about Price following their games this season. Hitchcock went as far to say that Price is the “only goalie in the league” who forces him to change his offensive system.

Price can quietly, as he did early in the series, or more overtly as he did in Game 6, dominate and be an intimidating presence. But as the Canadiens move through the playoffs and face stiffer competition he will require a supporting cast.

The Canadiens have problems, mostly related to their offensive game.  And those issues, won’t be solved by Michel Therrien juggling every one of his forward lines as he did on Sunday night.

Brendan Gallagher, out of sheer will and determination, made the winning goal happen.  It was a playoff goal, and the kind that the Canadiens need more of going forward.  But they are hard,  requiring a warrior spirit to battle through traffic to the front of the net.  The type of effort that too few Habs have shown.

Lars Eller had another strong game and was the Canadiens best forward in the series.  From the faceoff (a remarkable 86 per cent), the puck was his, and no one was going to take it. Eller was rewarded with just over 17 minutes of icetime but not with the wingers who could finish the scoring chances he created.  Brendan Gallagher should be on Eller’s right side for the remainder of the playoffs.

Similarly Max Pacioretty, who showed some signs of life in Game 6, should be attached to the hip of Tomas Plekanec: 5-on-5, on the power-play and while short-handed.

And continuing with the couplet exercise, pair David Desharnais with P.A. Parenteau and let them play their, relatively inconsequential, 12 minutes per game.

The open wing spot on each line could be changed to suit the game situation or Therrien’s whim.  It’s something to think about while waiting for the Canadiens second round opponent.

And since P.A. Parenteau may not be the magic elixir for the power-play that was promised, perhaps some time could be devoted to that too.  The Habs have scored just once in 20 opportunities with the man advantage.  Parenteau’s last power-play goal was on November 28.

The Canadiens dispatched the upstart Ottawa Senators in much the same way they won games in the regular season. The reality is that game plan may not be enough as the Habs playoff run continues.

▲     Carey Price, Lars Eller, Brendan Gallagher, Alexei Emelin

▼     David Desharnais, Devante Smith-Pelly, Andrei Markov, Alex Galchenyuk, Michel Therrien

1.  Carey Price  MTL
2.  JG Pageau  OTT
3.  Brendan Gallagher  MTL

• “Every time that [the Senators] got a chance, Carey Price was there.”
• “Tonight [the Senators] gave their best effort and good thing for us we got Pricer on our side, he was the big difference.”
• “Lars Eller had a good series.”

P.K. Subban

• “I like the fact that we had to come in here and win the series. If we’re going to get to the Stanley Cup Finals, we’re going to have to go into tougher buildings and tougher situations and find ways to win. One thing I learned last year was I felt we got so emotionally hyped up in that Boston series that I think it’s important for us to control that and gauge how much energy we use.”
• “I’m happy we won the series, but this is not our end goal. This is one step. It’s a step in the right direction, and now we’re going to get prepared for the next step.”

Brendan Gallagher

• “You could just see him before the game, the look he had, the focus that he had, he was going to put in a good performance.  Forty-three saves. That’s pretty impressive, road building in an elimination game. You come to expect it, but you can’t take it for granted. It’s pretty impressive what he did.”
• “If you watched our team this year, I think that was pretty standard for us. We get a goal and get up and we were able to lock it down. We would have liked to have been a little more aggressive at times in the game, but they came hard and they weren’t going to give up. We had our chances to make it 2-0 and their goalie played well, but obviously Pricer was unbelievable tonight. He competed like no one else.”
• “When you look at what he’s done for us all year, it was nothing new. You don’t want to take it for granted, but you come to expect performances like that. Some of the saves he made were world class. Obviously he’s our best player, and he showed up tonight and he was our best player.”

Max Pacioretty

• “Carey was the best player in the building. That’s the story very often with our team. He was the difference tonight. But I give that team a ton of credit because they definitely battled hard and played the right way, and their future looks good.”

Carey Price

• “The team wanted this one. When you’re up 3-0 in a series, you want to close it out. They’re a good hockey team. They pushed us; they played well those past few games. [Goalie Craig] Anderson played extremely well; even tonight he played real well. We just found a way to will one out.”
• “That’s what it’s all about. That’s what makes it so much fun. Ever since you’re a little kid, you dream of being in these types of situations, and tonight we found a way to succeed. Tonight we had a group of guys that were willing to do whatever it takes to win and we did.”

Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson

• “Right now it’s very, very empty. We’ve been playing so hard for the past few months here that I don’t think we really expected it to end this fast. For our team, for what we have in here, I think we had a great season. I think we should be happy where we are. Looking back, we shouldn’t really be in the playoffs to begin with. The run we made was unbelievable, and it was a lot of fun and everybody grew enormously from that.”

Senators coach Dave Cameron

• “This team has been a real treat to say you’ve been the head coach of them. I’m extremely proud of this group … after the disappointment of (the loss) is digested, it’s always a lot easier as a coach when your team has emptied its tank, and that team emptied its tank for me for three months.”