The Habs got another early lead and didn’t look back. Joel Armia had a pair of shorthanded tallies as special teams played a big role on Sunday night as Montreal skated away with a 5-1 victory, extending their series lead on Winnipeg to 3-0.

It was a full team, complete-game effort that gave the Habs a 5-3 win in Game 1 against Winnipeg. That needs to remain the focus after a disgusting end to the game that should mean the end of Mark Scheifele for most of the series if not the rest of it.

Carey Price offered another all-world performance on Monday night in a 3-1 victory to lead the Montreal Canadiens to a stunning upset over the heavily favoured Toronto Maple Leafs as they overcame a 3-1 series deficit to move on to face Winnipeg in the second round.

The Habs came out strong and played physical enough to keep the Leafs from being too comfortable. Carey Price saved the team on numerous chances and the team finally supported him with some goals with Nick Suzuki potting the overtime winner in a 4-3 victory.

Same recipe, same disaster. The Habs couldn’t score with only one line generating offence because of an obsession with shutting down Matthews instead of trying to win. Carey Price stood on his head again but can’t do it by himself. The end result was the Habs losing 4-0 on Tuesday night and they now trail 3-1 in the series.

With the last change on Monday night, Dominique Ducharme created a defensive line and played them until the Habs were behind and running out of time to get back in the game. The Leafs defended well in the third and that was the story as the Habs coached themselves to a 2-1 series deficit, losing the game by that same score.

Thursday’s series opener was a typical playoff game where both teams battled in the corners and the physicality was absolutely ramped up. While the Leafs had more scoring chances, they were faced with beating the Habs star in Carey Price who was on top of his game. The result was a defensive battle that saw the Habs come out ahead 2-1 to take the ultra-important 1-0 series lead.

The Habs had one line really rolling but it was enough to clinch their playoff position within the division as they fell 4-3 in overtime to Edmonton on Monday. With one game left, they still have a shot, although a slim one, at a 3rd place finish so the last game isn’t completely meaningless.

The Habs were nowhere to be found to start Thursday’s game in Toronto and they weren’t helped by a completely rattled Cayden Primeau as the Leafs took a 4-0 lead early and never looked back, skating away with a 5-2 victory.

It looked like the Habs expected a ten-minute flurry to start the game was going to be enough to win against the Senators on Wednesday night. Ottawa had other ideas as they survived that stretch and then destroyed the Habs for the other 50 minutes on their way to a relatively easy 5-1 victory.