The Montreal Canadiens Calling it a Season After Game 6 Elimination
By Emmanuel D
The Montreal Canadiens season came to a close in Game 6 against the Philadelphia Flyers after a hard-fought series. Nick Suzuki scored twice in the loss.
If you told someone at the beginning of March that the Montreal Canadiens would have eliminated the Pittsburgh Penguins in a playoff-qualifying series and then push the top seed in the Eastern Conference to 6 games in the first round of the playoffs, there is a good chance you would have been called crazy. However, that situation became a reality when the NHL shut down due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
As a result, in their plan to return to play, the NHL introduced an expanded, 24-team playoff format that saw the Montreal Canadiens come in as the last seed in the league. In a best-of-5 qualifying series, the Montreal Canadiens outplayed the Pittsburgh Penguins more often than not, booking their ticket to playoffs in the process.
Given the playoff format, the NHL opted to determine the matchups using the seeding of teams. Therefore, the Montreal Canadiens would end up playing the Philadelphia Flyers who were flawless in their four Round Robin games, earning them the top seed in the Eastern Conference.
The trend throughout the series has been that if you score the first goal, you win the game. The Philadelphia Flyers wasted no time scoring 28 seconds into the first period as Travis Konecny scored off a deflected shot for the 1-0 lead that Artturi Lehkonen ended up tipping in. While it may have looked like a soft shot, Carey Price nonetheless had no chance of seeing it.
In a series that saw head coach Claude Julien sidelined due to hospitalization leading to Kirk Muller taking over as interim head, goaltending duels, young talent, two blowout wins and Brendan Gallagher out for the remainder of the series due to a hit that saw Matt Niskanen suspended, the series nothing short of memorable.
For one last time this year, let’s see how it all went down.