Conference Finals- Game 3 Preview: We Need Goals!

Offence: Michael Leighton has a .969 SV% and a 0.87 GAA in these playoffs, and 2 shutouts against Montreal.  The Canadiens forwards have to find a way to disrupt Leighton's stellar play and put some pucks by him.  In order to overcome the 2-0 series deficit, the Habs have to get in Philadelphia's crease, screen Leighton, and beat the Flyers defence to rebounds.

Defence: Montreal has to get back to what made the successful in the first two rounds, that is blocking shots.  The Canadiens have blocked 355 shots in this postseason, over 100 more than any other team.  But after frustrating Ovechkin and then Crosby, the Habs only got in the way of 35 shots through two games against Philadelphia.

Why isn't Ryan O'Byrne playing?  He played over 18 minutes a game towards the end of the first round, is a +1, and has 25 shot blocks.  And he could keep the Flyers forwards from feeling at home in Jaroslav Halak's crease.  Compare that to Marc-Andre Bergeron's -11, 1 goal and inability to play defence in general, and it seems like a no brainer.  Bergeron could be put on the 4th line and used on the PP where his shot would still garner attention from Flyer penalty killers.

Goal: Halak can't be blamed for any losses where the team in front of him fails to score a single goal, but one has to wonder if back to back losses and a couple weak goals are starting to wear on him.  Another concern is the ridiculous workload Halak has had.  After coming back from the Olympics where he started for Slovakia, he got the majority of starts down the stretch.  In the first two rounds of the playoffs he saw a load of shots from Washington and Pittsburgh.  That's a lot of work for a goalie who wasn't a regular starter until 3 months ago.

Quote: “We’ve got to do it, we can’t just sit around and talk about it.” -Travis Moen

Conference Finals- Game 2 Recap: No Goals Again

Another 3-0 shutout and Montreal is now down 2 games to Philadelphia.  The Canadiens came out the gate with a fury, outshooting the Flyers 16-6 at the first intermission.  The rest of the game followed a similar pattern with the Habs controlling the puck more, winning more faceoffs, getting more shots on goal and turning the puck over less.  Of course, all that doesn't mean shit if you don't score a goal.

Offence: Mike Cammalleri  led all forwards in TOI, logging 24:16.  Brian Gionta fired 8 shots at Michael Leighton after only getting 1 SOG in game one.  Leighton has made 58 straight saves during his shutouts in game 1 and game 2.  Montreal's forwards have to pick it up, especially guys like Thomas Plekanec, Scott Gomez and Andrei Kostitsyn.  None of these guys have scored a goal since round 1.

Defence: Roman Hamrlik led the defence again, playing almost 25 minutes and wasn't on the ice for a goal against.  Jacques Martin chose to leave Ryan O'Byrne out of the lineup again.  Eventhough O'Byrne would be the best defencemen to deal with Flyers forwards buzzing around Jaroslav Halak.

Goal: Halak let in three goals on 20 shots, the last one being extremely weak.  It didn't matter though, only the first one matters when your team gets shutout.

Quote: "You don't score, you don't win." -Scott Gomez

The lowlights:

Hablinks

• The Ottawa Senators really wanted Mike Cammalleri but settled for Alexei Kovalev instead.
• HNIC feature on Brian Gionta.
• Habs and Hawks in Original Six cup final?
• NHLPA feature on Hal Gill.
• Waazzuup Halak!
• Kirk Muller is head coach material.
• A retrospective on Habs- Flyers history.
• Another Georges Laraque commercial. 

Conference Finals- Game 2 Preview: It's All About Net Presence

Key Matchup: Jaroslav Halak vs. Michael Leighton
Montreal has to find a way to give Halak a chance to see the shots.  In game 1, there was a Flyer parked in front of the net at every opportunity.  The Canadiens D has to make life miserable for any Philedelphia player who wants to stand at the top of the crease.  At the other end, Leighton has to get a little of what his team is giving.  The Habs don't have any typical power forwards (Benoit Pouliot looks like one, but refuses to play like one) but that hasn't stopped them from getting the majority of their goals from within 6 feet of the net in these playoffs.

Key Stats: 2 Wins
Halak has been pulled two times in these playoffs prior to last nights loss.  Each time he has responded with a win in the following game.  There is no evidence that Halak's confidence will suffer from getting the hook in game 1.

Injuries:
Canadiens: D Andrei Markov (knee), D Paul Mara (shoulder)
Flyers: G Brian Boucher (knee), C Jeff Carter (foot), G Ray Emery (hip), RW Ian Laperriere (conncussion)

Notable:
Andrei Markov will not play in this series against Philadelphia.  Jeff Carter could see action for the Flyers though, and that would be bad news for a Montreal team that had a tough time containing Philadelphia's forwards in game 1.

Quote:
"They didn't have the same net presence as the Bruins, I could see over some of the guys." - Michael Leighton

Conference Finals- Game 1 Recap: Scorched!

For the first time in these playoffs the Canadiens did not show up to play and received an absolute routing at the hands of Philadelphia. Both teams were coming off of tremendous game 7 wins , but Montreal looked to take a break while the Flyers leveraged their momentum into a 6-0 win.

Offence: Montreal's snipers were stymied by the Flyers. Mike Cammalleri and Brian Gionta were both limited to a single shot.

Defence: P.K. Subban once again led the Habs defence in ice time but finished a -3 and chose some bad times to jump into the play and attack.

Goal: Jaroslav Halak only stopped 10 of 14 shots before being yanked in favor of Carey Price, who then allowed 2 more goals on the 11 shots he faced.

If you feel like it, the check out the lowlights below.