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Habs Can't Solve Lundqvist. Vanek Ghosting through the ECF |
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The Montreal Canadiens are hurting. Down 2-0 in the conference finals, down their most valuable player in Carey Price, down but certainly not out.
The Habs could've approached game two with retribution on their minds. They could've allowed frustration to get the better of them, but instead they came out with a great effort--stymied only by the exceptional play of Henrik Lundqvist, who made 40 saves to preserve a 3-1 win for the New York Rangers.
If the sense of belief from the fanbase had all but dissipated with the announcement of Carey Price's injury, his unavailability for the remainder of the conference finals, it hadn't for the Canadiens. In Dustin Tokarski's baptism by fire, the Habs were leaving nothing to chance with the way they started game two.
Max Pacioretty broke through to give them the start they were looking for. And then 17 seconds later, Ryan McDonagh fired a puck off Josh Gorges' shoulder that pinged off the post and in behind Tokarski. It was the kind of misfortune that should've rocked the Canadiens back, but the team kept coming. A defensive breakdown at the end of the first period allowed Chris Kreider to set up Rick Nash, who buried a quick one-timer before Tokarski could cover it. The 3-1 goal from Marty St. Louis was a perfect shot from the middle of the slot, on the powerplay.
It wasn't the goals that got by Tokarski, it was the goals that didn't get by Lundqvist. They call him the King back in New York, and he put in a royal performance at the Bell Centre in games one and two.
"I thought we made it pretty tough on him tonight," said a pensive Brendan Gallagher after the game. "We had traffic, we had bodies there, we had a lot of really good scoring chances."
There was, of course, the sense that the Canadiens just didn't get the bounces they required to win game two. Michel Therrien was leading that discourse: "Obviously, to win a hockey game, you need breaks."
P.K. Subban mentioned that several pucks seemed to graze Lundqvist or get tipped into him, and that he's eager to see how the Rangers react if the Canadiens inevitably break through on a few of those. That's the hope Montreal goes to New York with.
"You can't focus on winning four games at once. You have to focus on winning one game. If you win one game, you're back in the series. That's all our focus is right now," Gallagher affirmed.
Game three presents another dramatic test of will. Getting that one win could make a tremendous difference.
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1) We start with Thomas Vanek. Where is this guy's pulse?
The word going around is that he's hurt. Newsflash: The Canadiens are all hurt.
Do you think Brendan Gallagher's steaming around at 100% with the way he plays? If he can kick it up a notch the way he has, knowing that he's for sure hurting, can Vanek not find some sort of reserve to offer something?
Speaking with a former player at an intermission break for game one, he had this to say: "If I was in Montreal's room, I'd get in this guy's face and scream at him. I've never seen such a lack of effort in my life."
Here's the crux: Vanek's job is to score goals. Period. Right now, he's not doing anything--as in, not a single thing--that would lead him to scoring goals.
If the Canadiens need a goal-scorer to do the job that Vanek won't, they have one. He's dwindling on the fourth line, banging around with Brandon Prust and Dale Weise in a physical match up with Derek Dorsett and Daniel Carcillo.
Daniel Briere has done a great job in these playoffs with negligible opportunity. And if the Canadiens aren't going to reward that while Vanek doesn't even grasp at straws to get himself out of the mud, then Michel Therrien is doing the team a disservice.
Experience matters. In 2007, Briere had a goal and five assists in six games of a playoff series against Lundqvist and the Rangers. Briere played for the next six years in the same division. He scored plenty against Lundqvist. He knows a thing or two about getting to New York's King. You can laugh that all off by saying he's a different player now, and that was seven years ago. But if you think that Brad Richards and Marty St. Louis can't draw on their experience of playing and winning playoff games against the Canadiens in 2004, you're sadly mistaken. They're playing prominent roles in this series.
2) More on that.
The Habs operated with great balance in their series with Tampa. That was even more apparent in the structure of their lines against Boston.
Against a Rangers team that collapses and blocks a lot of shots; against the top four defensemen; against Lundqvist, the Canadiens need to put more offensive lines together.
Galchenyuk was obviously a step in the right direction. He looked pretty decent for a guy adjusting to the speed of the conference finals, having not played in such a long time.
Therrien can put Vanek with Pacioretty and Desharnais as a prayer that it might bring him to life (a defibrillator might work better), and he can promote Briere to Gionta's spot. In what way would that hurt the Canadiens?
3) Tokarski's performance is beyond reproach. If you really want to nitpick, you point the finger on the Nash goal. I certainly don't. He has to come up with an excellent save on that shot, and he doesn't. That didn't lose the game for Montreal.
Therrien's choice of Tokarski was a bold one, and it wasn't just for a game. It's Tokarski who's going to start game three, whether Therrien wanted to admit or not.
There's no turning back from that decision.
4) Peter Budaj is a class act all the way. His teammates love him. He works so hard, day in day out. He never complains. He's very proud to be Carey Price's back up.
He had to be hurt, furious, and really just broken about the decision that made him Tokarski's back up. How could he not be?
Therrien said it was about track record, and that Tokarski was a winner. He didn't expressly call Budaj a loser, but he may as well have. That's what his track record says.
I don't think it was the losses in Colorado. It was the 6-1 loss to the Senators last playoffs. It was the stint after the Olympics where he couldn't stop a beach ball. It was the three goals that turned a 4-1 win into a 7-2 win in game one. The character performances against Boston this season didn't overwhelm those memories.
5) I can't help but wonder where the Rangers are at mentally. Alain Vigneault feels the break in the schedule before game three will help his team recover from two seven-game series' before this one. Maybe it'll give them the mental strength to not look too far ahead.
Kreider and McDonagh were interviewed after the game saying they like the way their team played in game two, and that it was in the vein of improving with each game.
The logical argument is that Montreal is done if they can't win game three.
But they aren't done yet.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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