Montreal Canadiens: Looking Back at Their Last Playoff Series Victory
Game 1
The Canadiens and Senators had played each other just two years earlier in a very physical series that was dominated by the Sens. Surely, this series would not be as bloody, physical and injury-riddled. We even had players and coaches go at each other in the media with Brandon Prust calling Sens head coach Paul MacLean a “bug-eyed fat walrus” and MacLean blaming Raphael Diaz for Eric Gryba trying to decapitate Lars Eller with a ridiculous head-hunting attack.
Anyway, it got weird in the media but we will get to that in a minute. Habs top offensive threat Max Pacioretty was ruled out of the opening game with a suspected concussion, limiting the Canadiens already thin attack.
The first game started fairly tentatively as playoff series have a tendency to do. Hammond and Price turned aside some tough early tests, and then Milan Michalek opened the scoring late in the first.
Well, Michalek dumped the puck into the Habs zone and when it bounced towards the Habs crease, Markov tapped it into the net. So, technically Markov opened the scoring, he just scored on his own net.
Things got interesting in the second period as the action came fast and furious. First, Torrey Mitchell tied the game on a wraparound and broke the impenetrable wall that was The Hamburglar. Just 15 seconds later, Plekanec came flying down the wing and fired a shot through the legs of Hammond to give the Habs a lead. Just 15 seconds after that, Subban was thrown out of the game for slashing Mark Stone on the wrist. Subban had assisted on both Habs goals. That’s a heck of a shift.
The slash was what is generally called a minor penalty but for some reason was enough to give Subban a major and a game misconduct. Then, after the game, Senators team owner/jester Eugene Melnyk claimed that Stone had suffered a microfracture which is a medical term Melnyk had invented. This was around the same time he said he was going to run a forensic investigation to prove Matt Cooke intentionally tore Karlsson’s achilles tendon, so I really don’t know what else to say about the owner of the Senators. He has gone on to bury these stories with far more comical and idiotic ones since then.
Anyway, the Senators did score twice on the ensuing power play, but Lars Eller buried a beautiful goal on a shorthanded breakaway to keep things even at three when the Habs finally returned to even strength. Eller was sent in along after he caused a turnover at the Habs blue line and then Brian Flynn moved the back to him at the red line. Eller made no mistake deking to the forehand and firing a wrist shot into the top corner.
The Canadiens took the lead back when a great forechecking shift from their fourth line of Flynn, Brandon Prust and Torrey Mitchell put the Sens on their heels. Prust kicked the puck loose to Flynn down low and he drove the net like a young Rick Nash, driving to the front of the crease and shovelling the puck under Hammond and he stretched across the crease. It was Flynn’s third point of the net. It was also his last of the postseason.
The Habs tried to extend the lead early in the third with several chances before the inevitable late game push from the Sens who were trying to tie the game. However, Hammond and Price held firm in the final period and the Habs held on to their one goal lead to take the first game of the series.