Montreal Canadiens: 5 Players Who Have to Step Up in the Playoffs

Well, you can kiss a first-round date with the Edmonton Oilers goodbye. Thanks to five straight losses, including those of the embarrassing kind to the lowly Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs, the Montreal Canadiens will be facing the Leafs.

But what is really the difference? One extra play-off round if they could have beaten the Oilers? To be the best you got to beat the best, and all roads out of the North Divison seem to lead straight through the heart of Ontario’s capital.

Now, it’s not all for nothing. Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin’s favourite saying, after all, is “in the playoffs, anything can happen.” And Montreal is coming up against a Toronto playoff team that might be as fragile as a bubble.

If you want to find Toronto’s last playoff series win, you would have to go all the way back to 2004, against current Leaf Jason Spezza’s (at the time 20 years old) Ottawa Senators. How long ago was that? Well, on that Ottawa team was captain Daniel Alfredsson, young forward Marian Hossa and a hulking young d-man in Zdeno Chara. Toronto was led by Mats Sundin, Joe Nieuwendyk and Ed Belfour.

Toronto lost in the very next round against the Philadelphia Flyers, but if you want to see playoff pain, you have to look a little bit more recent. For that, we have to go to the not-so-distant past of 2013.

2013 was a lockout-shortened year and it played right into Toronto’s strengths. Recently, the Maple Leafs have the pattern of being good at the start of the year, but crashing out of the playoffs by season end, generally in spectacular fashion. In the shortened season, Toronto did not have time to collapse and they made the playoffs and lined up against the Boston Bruins.

Toronto was not supposed to hold their own against the Bruins and pleasantly surprised as they took them to seven games. That doesn’t mean that the seventh game was any less painful, as just over halfway through the third period, Toronto blew a 4-1 lead to lose the game 5-4 in overtime.

But, that was just a prelude. No one on the team now played in that series, but it serves as a perfect introduction to the next years of playoff hockey. First, they missed the next three years of playoff hockey, but gained Auston Matthews, William Nylander and Mitch Marner.

The kids showed up earlier than expected, and in Matthews and Marner’s rookie season, the Maple Leafs made the playoffs and played the Washington Capitals. This was just icing on the cake. Everyone knew that Matthews, Marner and Nylander would be good, but no one thought that they would be this good this early. So, when they bowed out to Washington after putting up a good fight in 6 games, no one was upset.

Then, Boston came back to haunt them. With the Tampa Bay Lightning securely in first in the Atlantic Division, it was two years in a row that Toronto and Boston met in the playoffs. The first time, Toronto lost in game 7, as a back-and-forth game turned more back than forth in the 3rd period.

That hurt, but it had a bittersweet feeling to it. Toronto was down 3-1 in the series and forced an entertaining seventh game out of it. The next year? Not so much. The games went one for Toronto, one for Boston, one for Toronto, one for Boston, until the seventh game. Boston demolished Toronto 5-1.

Maybe it is just Boston that has Toronto’s number? Well, last year in the play-in round Toronto drew a favourable match-up against the Columbus Blue Jackets. That round was anything but easy and simple. One game, Toronto gave up a 3-0 lead and lost in overtime. Then, in a must-win game 4, Toronto came back from a 3-0 lead with less than 4 minutes left to force a decisive game 5.

Time to exercise those demons, especially with the immense momentum of the last come-back win, right? Well, Toronto laid a goose-egg, 3-0. And everyone’s favourite stat was that the big 4 offensive Torontonians made almost as much as the entirety of Columbus’ forwards, and those Toronto forwards could not muster a goal.

So, Toronto is not impervious in the playoffs and maybe is a bit fragile. That doesn’t mean it is going to be a walk in the park or even possible that Montreal can beat them. Matthews is the best scorer in the league this year and it is not even close. Jack Campbell has been playing great and even broke a record this year.

But, if Montreal is going to make it past Toronto, some guys are going to have to step up.

Disclaimer: It is easy to say that the entire team needs to step up after the way the Canadiens have been playing lately. This list is the most important players who need to step it up, and the ones that are the most likely to do it. Guys like Paul Byron and Artturi Lehkonen are what they are, and guys like Eric Staal who seem less and less likely to do something productive will not be found here.

And so, without further ado…