The Montreal Canadiens Driving for Their 25th Stanley Cup!

THE MONTREAL CANADIENS DRIVING FOR 25 STANLEY CUPS

Can you feel it? It’s electric and all around us. The energy in Montreal is amped to see the Habs set off on their Drive for their 25th Stanley Cup. It begins Wednesday, and it’s sure to be an entertaining quest to say the least. The Habs head into the playoffs on a positive note and with the goaltending that can’t help but may you believe a Stanley Cup win is a possibility.

Before we compare the goaltending, defensive pairings, and lines, we want to set the tone of this article, so here’s a “Montreal Canadiens  2015 PLAYOFFS PUMP-UP” Video:

With that piece in mind, let’s step off and take a close look at how things look in each area:

GOALTENDING

From CyberPresse.Ca

This is what will drive the series, and unless you live in a bubble, you know this is a showdown for the ages. We have the new kid in town, Andrew Hammond, trying to take the Ottawa Senators under his wing in the very same way Habs fans saw Patrick Roy do in 1986. He’s come out of nowhere and many fans are now looking to pick on his playoff inexperience as a source of weakness.

I don’t buy it.

If the Ottawa Senators forwards and defencemen support him as they did to finish the season, he’s going to be just as tough to beat in the playoffs than he was in the regular season. So can move on from that argument? Great.

Here’s what I do know about the goaltending in the series: Carey Price needs to stay healthy, and he needs the protection he is entitled to from people crashing the net. Whether that comes from the referees calling penalties on Sens players, or from Habs defencemen not getting called for roughing up Sens players in front of the net, I don’t really care. But if the Sens are allowed to run Price into the back of the net, all bets are off. The Habs will become so focused on that aspect of the game that it will create opportunities for the Sens to score more goals from elsewhere.

Another thing I know is that the Habs have the skills and ability to score against Andrew Hammond. He’s not unbeatable. Somehow, the Habs need to create opportunities by getting traffic in front of the Sens net minder. There should be at least one guy on each line designated to taking that mission: get under Hammond’s skin.

It’s a tougher thing to do than it would seem. The Ottawa Senators have a group of defencemen that is very effective and can rough it with the best of them. Guys like Mark Borowiecki and Jared Cowen can move the biggest bodies and Erik Karlsson isn’t a Norris nominee for no reason. They all use the body well and Habs forwards are going to need to be aggressive to claim space in front of Hammond. I’ll get to how to handle their D in the next portion, for now, back to goaltending.

What happens to Carey Price and Andrew Hammond may be very important to settling where they stand career wise. While Hammond seems to have all of the pressure on his shoulders because it’s his first playoff series, this is also extremely important for Price who wants to settle all questions about whether or not he can win the Stanley Cup. In a perfect world, Price wants to win the Vezina, the Conn Smythe, and the Stanley Cup all in one season. Doing so would be the final missing piece to making him an immortal goaltending legend in the eyes of Habs fans and would finally put all Patrick Roy comparisons to rest. Meanwhile, Hammond is already a hero in Ottawa for simply getting the Sens into the playoffs and has nothing to lose.

So who has more pressure on him again?

Carey Price is carrying a load that is MUCH heavier than Andrew Hammond. Is he capable of carrying it? We’ll soon find out. If the regular season is an indication, the answer is hell yes.

DEFENSE

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In my opinion, if there’s one strategy that may work in the Habs favour to put the series to rest as easily as possible it’s this one:

hit

. Hit him

hard

, hit him

often

, and

wear him down

as much as possible. Why?

If we take a close look at the Ottawa Senators lineup, we notice that he’s the only defenseman with more than 21 points and is leading the Sens in points. He is the most dangerous Sen on the ice, and he needs to be shut down if the Habs are going to win this series. Get him into the penalty box for retaliation if you can, and make sure he’s not concentrated on anything but absorbing the next hit.

If the Habs can do this effectively, it will make Carey Price’s job a whole lot easier.

After all, here are how the points shake out for Senators D:

1. Erik Karlsson: 82 GP, 21 G, 45 A, 66 Pts
2. Cody Ceci: 81 GP, 5 G, 16 A, 21 Pts
3. Patrick Wiercioch: 56 GP, 3 G, 10 A, 13 Pts
4. Eric Gryba: 75 GP, 0 G, 12 A, 12 Pts
5. Mark Methot: 45 GP, 1 G, 10 A, 11 Pts
6. Mark Borowiecki: 63 GP, 1 G, 10 A, 11 Pts
7. Jared Cowen: 54 GP, 3 G, 6 A, 9 Pts

That’s an extremely untalented offensive group when you take Karlsson out. They are primarily stay-home types and grinders who play a physical game. In comparison, the Habs D creates a huge amount of the offensive chances the Habs get. Here are their top 3 in terms of points per game:

1. P.K. Subban : 82 GP, 15 G, 45 A, 60 Pts
2. Andrei Markov: 81 GP, 10 G, 40 A, 50 Pts
3. Jeff Petry: 19 GP, 3 G, 4 A, 7 Pts (on pace for 30 pts if 82 GP)

The depth the Habs have at the blue line is better than the Sens. And quite honestly they are better puck movers overall, an edge they need to take advantage of. The Petry acquisition in particular helped give the Habs another threat and one that was highlighted in the last few games when he was much more comfortable joining the rush.

Due to the need for Petry to be effective to give the Habs more offensive help against the Sens, the deadline acquisitions the Habs made seem critical to the Habs success to me. You can see a little more about Petry and the other deadline acquisitions here.

Overall, if the Habs play it right, they should have a decent edge on D. But if they don’t shut down Erik Karlsson, life is going to be miserable for Carey Price. Next page, we continue to the forwards.