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MONTREAL - The NHL general manager, who has watched the Eastern Conference final from afar, perhaps summed up what has befallen the Montreal Canadiens against the Philadelphia Flyers.
“For two rounds, the Canadiens were a small team that played big, bigger than the Washington Capitals, bigger than the Pittsburgh Penguins,” he said. “Now they just look like a small team.”
It could be as simple as that.
When then-Canadiens general manager Bob Gainey assembled this team out of the scorched earth approach to team building he undertook during the summer, changing better than half the team, size didn’t matter.
Certainly the competitiveness of smaller players like Brian Gionta, Tomas Plekanec, Mike Cammalleri and Scott Gomez was a big reason why the eighth-seeded Canadiens overcame the Caps and the Penguins against big odds in the opening two rounds of the playoffs.
But now, against a bigger group of defencemen - at least they play bigger than those of Washington or Pittsburgh - and who are just as competitive as the Montreal forwards, the Canadiens size has become an issue.
They are not getting to the net, not winning puck battles around the blue paint, not crowding Philadelphia goaltender Michael Leighton, who has now run his shutout string to 165 minutes and 50 seconds as the Flyers have outscored the Habs 9-0 in taking a 2-0 series lead.
The Canadiens are getting boxed out of the blue paint and right off the scoresheet.
“Sometimes,” concluded the GM, “you wind up in a matchup that just doesn’t work for you. The Canadiens had it their way in the first two rounds. They’re not out of this yet, but they are going to be if they don’t get to the front of the net.”
“That’s pretty much playoff hockey right there. Crowding the front of the net, throwing pucks there and hoping for bounces and loose pucks to travel under your stick,” said Flyers defenceman Chris Pronger. “It’s been a part of playoff hockey for as long as I can remember. You know, you see funny things happen when pucks are thrown at the net.”
The Canadiens have not faced a defenceman like Pronger in these playoffs. The leaders on the blue lines for the Caps and the Penguins - Mike Green in the case of the Caps and Sergei Gonchar and Kris Letang for the Penguins - don’t have the two-way game Pronger has, never mind the reputation as the game’s Charles Manson with a Warrior in his hands.
Kimmo Timmonen isn’t a big guy for the Flyers, but he’s a battler and another strong two-way guy. Braydon Cobourn is a great skater who uses that asset to close gaps and take away space. As Pronger’s partner, Matt Carle has blossomed this season. Lucas Krajicek and Ryan Parent are the third pair and have been getting more ice and taking the load off the first four thanks to the Flyers playing with the lead this entire series so far.
This series smells like it’s over given Leighton’s air of invincibility, both in his ability to stop the puck and in the Flyers defencemen being able to keep the Habs forwards away from him for second chances.
That said, a goal early for the Habs Thursday night at what is going to be a raucous Bell Centre can change the whiff fast.
“It would give us confidence to know that he’s not invincible, that it’s not impossible to score on him. Your mindset changes,” said Canadiens defenceman Josh Gorges “If you get the lead, they’re going to change a little bit, too. We haven’t put them in a position where they have to force it to try and score. They’ve had the lead the entire series. We have to have a big start, try to get that early lead.”
This unlikely Canadiens’ playoff run depends on it.