Fresh off showing the door to Crosby, Malkin and Letang, the Habs now have to set their sights on the Philadelphia Flyers. While Philly might not have the two headed monster the Pens had at centre, they have a lot more depth spread across their 4 lines and if the Habs have any hope of winning this series, they will need every single player to buy in to the system and contribute. Now more than ever, there is no room for passengers.
The keys to the Canadiens' success will be twofold: one, as always, they will need Carey Price to be his absolute best self and two, their centres will have to be up to the task. The emergence of both Nick Suzuki and Jesperi Kotkaniemi in the play in series as reliable centres is the main difference between the Habs we saw in the regular season and the ones we are seeing right now. As long as Claude Julien keeps on trusting the kids, Montreal stands a chance. Once he has the last change, in game 3,4 and 6 (if necessary), expect the newly formed Danault line to be tasked with containing the Giroux-Couturier-Voracek combination. Before then, we'll have to see who Vigneault decides to set his biggest weapon on.
Yesterday, in his media availability, Philip Danault said that a good centre line is really important in today's NHL and that the emergence of the Canadiens' youngsters has finally solved a decade old problem for the Canadiens. For Danault, taking on Sean Couturier will be nothing new. The two centres were playing each other back in the LHJMQ when the later was lining-up for Drummondville and the former for Victoriaville. Both were taken in the first round of the 2011 draft, Couturier was 8th overall while Danault was the 26th pick. Couturier established himself much faster than Danault did in the NHL and he is now recognized as one of the top two-way centres in the league. Meanwhile, Danault only established himself once he was sent to Montreal in the Weise-Fleischmann deal and he truly improved his offensive game once he was saddled with the Habs top two forwards.
Speaking of Weise, he admitted in his media availability that the prospect of facing a team that traded him away and felt that "he just didn't fit in with their team" was extra motivation. Should Claude Julien keep playing him on the 4th line as he has so far, the "Dutch Gretzky" should be fully committed to making an impact. That can't hurt since he was far from being a difference maker in the match-up against Pittsburgh. The series will also be special for Weise because he'll be facing the two former coaches who had the biggest impact on his career. Vignault gave him the chance to become a real NHL player back in Vancouver and Therrien was the one who entrusted him with more responsibility once he was traded to the Habs.
It will be interesting to see if Julien decides to use Max Domi in an increased role this coming series. While Domi has done what was asked for him and showed himself to be a real team player, even pumping Alex Belzile's tires on Instagram, there's no denying that he must be somewhat disappointed. As you know, this is a contract year for the forward and right now, it feels like he doesn't really have the opportunity to show what he can do. While his performance came short of that of his first season with the Habs, he was still the third scorer on this team with 44 points. Furthermore, he got those points without really having regular line mates contrarily to Tatar, Danault and Gallagher who were together all through the year. To me, Domi is an interesting mix of skill and grit and the Canadiens need to keep this kind of player. Right now, if Domi is given the choice of playing as a 4th line centre or as a winger on the top six, I bet he would throw himself in that new winger role. To be fair, Julien was expecting a lot from his Drouin-Suzuki-Armia line and not much came of it. Now that this line is centered by Kotkamiemi, why not give Domi a shot on the wing? If I have to chose between Domi and Drouin, I'd rather keep Domi. That being said, Joel Armia didn't do much either against Pittsburgh so he's be a candidate for demotion too. Question is, can either Domi and Drouin play right wing if need be?
The puck will drop on the series tomorrow at 20:00 until then, 4 1st round series will kick off today: the Lightning will get a chance at redemption by facing the Blue Jackets, the Flames will take on the Stars, the Canes will get a chance to avenge their conference final lost from last season against Boston and the Hawks will try to kill another giant by facing the Knights. It should be a great day of hockey, enjoy hockey fans!
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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