May 9, 2013; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Montreal Canadiens team cheer after loosing against Ottawa Senators in game five of the first round of the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Bell Centre. Mandatory Credit: Jean-Yves Ahern-USA TODAY Sports

As you most definitely know by now, the Canadiens lost their final playoff game, at home, to the Ottawa Senators. Beat in every facet of the game, it’s almost ironic that the Ottawa Senators would be playing a team that’s suddenly faced the injury problems they’ve dealt with all year. I have to admit, I’m still seething about the Game 4 loss, but in the end, it doesn’t matter.

There’s a lot to be happy about with this team. After finishing in 15th place last year for the first time in franchise history, expectations were not high for this squad. Under the first year of Marc Bergevin’s tenure at the helm of one of the most storied franchises in sporting history, he instilled something that was missing all these years: heart. The Canadiens might not have been the biggest, most elite or most talented squad on the ice this year, but they showed that they had the will to compete with any team on any given night. They won more than they lost and won the division lead, which makes a first round exit ever more painful. They would have an intense forecheck and rarely gave up on a game.

There were so many success stories this season, from the excellent play of Lars Eller, Alex Galchenyuk and Brendan Gallagher  to the surge of P.K Subban as a Norris Trophy candidate. Carey Price was elite for about 40 of the games this year, and the impact of heart-and-soul guys like Brandon Prust and Colby Armstrong can’t be underestimated. The Canadiens saw good production from Rene Bourque, Max Pacioretty and Tomas Plekanec, while the physical play of Alexei Emelin proved to be the perfect partner to Andrei Markov. You almost couldn’t blame Canadiens fans for thinking this series against Ottawa was more desirable than a physical affair against the Toronto Maple Leafs, a team that had their number all season.

Alas, that’s why they play the games – the Ottawa Senators are a good team, well-coached and with excellent depth. They play a defensive style and rely on often otherwordly goaltending from Craig Anderson. They’ve overcome a lot this season and they played a much better series than the Canadiens. From Game 1, the devastating injury to Lars Eller and Max Pacioretty‘s now-public suffering of a shoulder separation (which he repeatedly tried to play through, a testament to his character), the Senators served notice that they couldn’t be taken lightly. From there, it seemed to totally fall apart for the Canadiens – from terrible special teams to being unable to maintain forecheck to having simply average goaltending. The injuries to core players, like Brandon Prust, Brian Gionta, Rene Bourque and last but not least Carey Price in Game 4, would prove to be some of the undoing of this team. They simply were outplayed, outchanced, and outmuscled in every facet of the game, and the best team won in the end. Ottawa outscored the Canadiens 20-9, and received extremely great goaltending – this wasn’t a fluke win by any stretch of the imagination. The Canadiens couldn’t deal with a sudden bout of adversity and fell in only 5 games.  In many ways, the Canadiens never recovered from that slump that plagued them at the end of the season.Ottawa deserves to move on, and as painful as it is, there’s some light at the end of the tunnel.

This is a young team that’s learning to come into it’s own. While some will point to the massive injuries sustained in this series, I think a lot of the blame can be distributed to the veterans in here – key vets didn’t produce. I’m looking at David Desharnais, Max Pacioretty (even he’s not allowing his injury as an excuse), Michael Ryder, Andrei Markov and Carey Price as key players in this series who performed well-below expectations. On the bright side, the youth of this team shone through – players like Brendan Gallagher and Alex Galchenyuk were fantastic, Jarred Tinordi was steady on D (if a bit over-matched at times). And honestly, my 1st star of this series goes to P.K Subban. No matter how many times the HNIC panelists will assert that he’s trouble in the dressing room (despite all the evidence to the contrary), he was an elite D-man in this series and he will be a key cog of the Canadiens future. He carried the play offensively, mixed it up physically and was a rock in his own zone, despite getting little-to-no help from anyone else on the team. He will be paid handsomely in his next contract, and he proved to the Canadiens that he bleeds bleu-blanc-rouge with his heart-filled performance tonight. Speaking of P.K, if you haven’t read Jack Todd’s story on him in the Montreal Gazette, I suggest you do so – it’s a fantastic profile.

At the end of the day, despite the disappointment, I’m proud to be a Canadiens fan. They left it all on the ice and were soundly beaten by a better team. I don’t have even an inch of doubt that the team is currently in the right hands, and that the players on the ice tonight will remember the pain of elimination along with the gratitude of a fan base who can recognize the bright moments that this team brought to its city this year. In my mind, there’s many more great years to come and the Canadiens management has their work cut out for them in terms of building a winner both in the present and in the future.

May 7, 2013; Ottawa, ON, CAN; Montreal Canadiens defenseman Josh Gorges (26) and left wing Travis Moen (32) and defenseman Raphael Diaz (61) skate back to the bench after losing in overtime in game four of the first round of the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs aainst the Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Place. The Senators defeated the Canadiens 3-2 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Marc DesRosiers-USA TODAY Sports

I have no words to describe what I’m feeling right now. This loss is a killer and I’m not sure there’s a worse way to lose a game of this importance. With the Montreal Canadiens ahead 2-0 on goals from P.K Subban and Alex Galchenyuk, there were two monumental refereeing mistakes that literally robbed the Canadiens of a win they desperately needed to make a series out of it. Canadiens fans have a somewhat deserved reputation for blaming refereeing, but I don’t see how this game wasn’t massively interfered with.

I’m still speechless, and this is going to be much less of a recap than an analysis of what happened in the last period of this game. With the Canadiens holding onto their lead, Mike Zibanejad directed a puck behind Carey Price with his foot. Somewhat predictably, it was called a goal and went to review in Toronto. The replay showed it quite clearly: there was distinct kicking motion that saw Zibanejad pull back his skate and push forward to direct the puck with his skate. The goal call on the ice stood, and quite frankly, it’s a disgrace that a sport that has video replay couldn’t determine that he kicked it into the net. In any case, it was now a 2-1 game and still in reach. The Canadiens went into a defensive shell for the rest of the game and the Senators were indeed pushing quite hard and most likely deserved the equal the score. The kicker, no pun intended, was that Erik Karlsson was allowed to very, very slowly make his way to a puck behind his goal line that was called for icing – in no way, shape or form did Karlsson seriously attempt to get that puck and it was almost rolling when it got to the goal line. I think Karlsson himself was surprised that icing was called, and play would continue until Price froze the puck. Here, another monumental error (this one that NHL has officially apologized for) by the refs meant that the Canadiens sent out the left-handed centerman, David Desharnais, to take the draw because it should have been on the left. The linesman instead called the faceoff to the right and the Canadiens couldn’t make the necessary switch. A tying goal was scored shortly after and to add salt to the wound, Carey Price was injured (looks like a groin) and Budaj was put in for overtime. The winner, from Kyle Turris, would bounce off of Raphael Diaz and into the net, giving the Senators a commanding 3-1 series lead.

Tonight, it pains me to think that the Canadiens lost a game because of the officials. I don’t like whining, I don’t want to whine but this game has an entirely different outcome if the rulebook had been followed. It’s incredible to me that 3 blown calls result in a 3-2 come-from-behind win. The Senators deserve the credit for pressing in the 3rd while the Canadiens sat back, but this game should have never gone to overtime.

The Canadiens aren’t done, obviously, but this is a crushing blow and a momentum draining loss. I don’t honestly have much to say, I’m pretty disheartened by what I saw tonight. Hopefully they can force a game 7 here, but with the loss of Carey Price, it might be too much to bear at this point. I still believe, but the hockey gods were not with the Canadiens for this series.

May 5, 2013; Ottawa, ON, CAN; Montreal Canadiens centre Tomas Plekanec (14) looks on as the puck is deflected by Ottawa Senators goalie Craig Anderson (41) in the second period in game three of the first round of the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs at Scotiabank Place. Mandatory Credit: Marc DesRosiers-USA TODAY Sports

Well, that was terrible. Coming off an emotional win on Friday evening, I expected a convincing win from the Montreal Canadiens. Instead, they got Pageau-ed by the Senators to the tune of a 6-1. To add insult to injury, they got pasted during a line brawl in the third, losing in all 5 fights. Ryan White, in particular, got pasted by Jared Cowen. For the Canadiens, the game was a nightmare. Not too much of a point in overstating it’s importance, since neither team has won 4 games yet. They got humiliated, but they have the luxury of moving on and getting ready for Game 4. My initial prediction was Canadiens in six, and I stand by it.

The Senators would jump out to a lead courtesy of Habs killer Daniel Alfredsson, and Rene Bourque (who is having an absolutely fantastic series) evened it up in the third. Jean-Gabriel Pageau would put the Senators ahead 2-1, and the Senators would score 3 more unanswered goals in an utterly dominant period. Most of the Canadiens defensemen would be thrown out of the game, and the game would end with several more powerplays being handed to the Senators. The most notable part of this game was how the suspect the defensive coverage was (though most will probably blame Carey Price) and the fact that Senators fans had a particularly creative Pageau-chant going. The Senators goals were scored by Pageau (yes,a hat trick), Turris and Silferberg.

My observations:

- The Canadiens need to tighten up defensively if they want to win this series. I still think it will be a long series and that the Canadiens have the depth to pull through, I just think it will be difficult if they keep parting like the red sea every single time a Senator breaks through.

- The refereeing is atrocious. This is a common theme in every series I’ve watched, but enough with the inconsistency. It’s an absolutely joke and I’m often unable to tell from one period to the next what will be called and what won’t be. If you want to be lax, do so consistently.

- Max Pacioretty and David Desharnais have been terrible. Time to split them up permanently. Pacioretty can’t be playing on the perimeter if he wants to be effective, and David is quite simply ineffective. That contract is looking pretty terrible.

- I’m not sure how I feel about Carey Price‘s play. He was spectacular on Friday, mediocre on Friday and he definitely let in a softie tonight. He’s not getting any help from his D, but I think the Canadiens need more from him. You can’t give up 5 goals the way he did. It’s demoralizing.

- The playoffs are a grind and I don’t think anyone thought that the Senators would roll over. They’re a good defensive team, and supposedly had a pop-gun offense. The Canadiens need to get back to basics – active forechecking and tight defensive team play. One thing that’s stood out to me is that the forward support has been lacking – see Galchenyuk‘s puck watching on the Kyle Turris goal for an example of what not to do on the backcheck.

- Paul MacLean has to be the most disrespectful coach in hockey. Calling a timeout with 18 seconds left and your team is up 6-1 is bush league. Totally, totally classless.

- One thing I want to say about fans on both sides – don’t get too high after a win, and don’t get too low after a loss. Winning 4 games isn’t going to be easy for either side. Winning 1 game doesn’t mean anything until you’ve won four. Helps with controlling your blood pressure as well…

All in all, there’s more hockey to be played. Might as well throw out the tape on this one and focus on what to do better (read: everything) on Tuesday.