Carey Price made key saves, the Habs controlled the even-strength play, and then dominated the special teams. That’s the formula for many wins, and that’s just what the Habs did on Saturday night as they opened up their Western Canada trip with a decisive 5-1 win over Edmonton.
In an exciting season-opener, the Habs showed some offensive muscle proving that Marc Bergevin’s statement that the Habs can play any style was quite true. They faced the offensively capable Maple Leafs so despite the fact that Montreal was likely the better team, Toronto stuck around long enough to squeak out the win as the Habs were dropped 5-4 in overtime.
Tuesday afternoon was a game where the Habs looked like the 24th place team. They couldn’t adjust to a team that shut things down and the result was a second consecutive shutout that gives the Flyers the chance to end the series in only 24 hours.
The Habs showed up for their coach as they dominated the Flyers for an entire 60 minutes in Game 2. They picked up five goals along the way while Carey Price recorded the shutout to even up the series at a game apiece.
It took until late in the third period for the scoring to be opened but Artturi Lehkonen’s first goal of the series was the difference maker as the Habs eliminated Pittsburgh with a 2-0 victory on Friday.
It was another gigantic night on Monday for Carey Price, only this time he didn’t get quite enough support as he Habs lost 3-1 to Pittsburgh to even their Qualifying Round series at one apiece.
Carey Price was the best player on the ice for much of the evening and it still required overtime to get the Habs a Game 1 win against the Penguins after Jeff Petry scored in the extra frame to give Montreal the 3-2 victory.
If the forward group leans heavily in favour of the Penguins and the goaltending leans in favour of the Habs, the defensive matchup is a bit more even between the two clubs.
With the NHL looking for ways to come back this season, here’s a look at a quirky proposal that could check off many of the boxes required by the league to make a postseason that is fair, meaningful, difficult, and entertaining to the fans.
It was all Nashville for the first 40 minutes of play and only Carey Price kept it from being an embarrassing loss. When the playoff-hopeful Predators let up with a 4-0 lead, the kids on the Canadiens pushed back to make it interesting, but a game that was never really in doubt ended with a 4-2 win for Nashville on Tuesday night.