Today's Blog is brought to you by the number 41
41, the number Jaroslav Halak wears Montreal uniform. 41, the number of saves Halak made on Wednesday night vs. the Washington Capitals. 41, the number of blocked shots by his forwards & defensemen in the same game; a combined 82 shot attempts that a Montreal player turned away against the top seeded Caps.
If you don't watch the NHL on a regular basis, the first 55 minutes of Wednesday night's game 7 between the Montreal Canadians and the Washington Capitals most likely had you clawing your eyes out with boredom. The Canadians took a 1-0 lead after defense man Marc-Andre Bergeron slapped home a rocket on a power play with 30 ticks left in the 1st.
Cue the defense
The Canadians immediately revved up their go-to center ice trap (aka Neutral ice trap) for the remainder of the game and executed it to perfection. The capitals are a highly talented, score first team and the frustration was palpable for superstars Alex Ovechkin and company. The Canadians were disrupting the flow of the Capitals forwards in the neutral zone and pushing everything wide in the defensive zone. The Caps and Habs are about as opposite as they come in hockey and on Wednesday night we learned that there is something to be said about hard work and defense come playoff time.
The Capitals knew they would be in the post season since New Year's while the Canadians fought through every one of the 82 regular season games just to catch an 8-seed. The Caps had high expectations and nothing less than a Stanley Cup would fulfill those goals. Every attempt the Caps made to get their offense chugging along was denied by the shin pads or sticks of a Canadian player. Any shots that managed to find their way to the net were turned away by Halak. For most of the game the Caps could hardly manage to find a shot that wasn't from just inside the blue line or from a corner. Game 7 of this series made it tough to tell which team was playing for the cup as the Caps came out sluggish and the Habs were all over the ice in one of the most inspiring clutch performances in recent hockey history.
With 3:36 Dominic Moore gave the Canadians a 2-0 lead after Mike Green, Caps defensmen lost a battle to a lose puck with Montreal D Hal Gill. The Canadians had gone minutes without seeing a good scoring opportunity, but managed to deliver on Washington mistakes as they had all series. The Caps finally managed a goal with 2:16 remaining in the 3rd on a rebound put-back from Brooks Laich. The score would remain 2-1 Montreal even though the Habs had to fight off a penalty for the last 1:44 of the contest. For a game dominated by defense, the last 5 minutes of game 7 were about as tense as they come on both ends of the ice.
With the upset of the #1 seed Capitals, the Canadians will now face Evgeni Malkin and the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Pens took care of business against Ottawa in round 1 with a 4-2 series victory. The Canadians will have to find a way to spend more time in their opponents zone and put a clamp down on star forwards Crosby and Malkin as they did vs the Caps. They must also continue to capitalize on mistakes they force with their traps.
Typically seeing a match-up vs the 8-seed in the playoffs will leave any team, especially the defending Stanley Cup champs, salivating; After game 7 this week the Canadians have Pittsburgh players/fans thinking otherwise.
STAT LINES OF GAME:
- Montreal Defense - 41 blocks, Halak 41 saves
- Marc-Andre Bergeron (6 shifts - 4:06 Ice Time, 1 Goal)
- Scott Gomez (17 Faceoffs Won)
3 STARS
- 1st Star - Andrei Markov (25:12 played, 1 Goal, 6 Blks)
- 2nd Star - Jaroslav Halak (41 saves, 1GAA)
- 3rd Star - Hal Gill (23:35 played, 1 Assist, 6 Blks)
Round 2 of the NHL playoffs includes:
1 San Jose vs 5 Detroit (San Jose leads 1-0)
2 Chicago vs 3 Vancouver
4 Pittsburgh vs 8 Montreal
6 Boston vs 7 Philadelphia
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