When the playoffs began, few would have expected that the Phildelphia Flyers (7th seeded) and the Montreal Canadiens (8th seeded) would be battling it out for the Eastern Conference Championship for the chance to appear in the Stanley Cup finals.
It has been a historical performance by both teams. There can not be enough said about Montreal’s goalie Jaroslav Halak and the season he has had. Halak began the year by leading the Slovakian national team to the Olympic semifinals by defeating the defending champions, Sweden, and the much anticipated Russian team, resulting in a showdown with Team Canada.
Thus far in the NHL playoffs, Halak and the Montreal Canadiens have shut down Alexander Ovechkin and the number one seeded National Capitols, only to take on the defending Stanley Cup Champions, the Pittsburgh Penguins with Sydney Crosby and Marc-Andre Fleury.
Now, after two series that were both forced to game seven against arguably two of the best teams in the conference, do the Canadiens have enough left in them to stop the Philadelphia Flyers‘ momentum?
As we saw Sunday evening, with the 6-0 Flyers win, Philadelphia brings a physical style of game, that the Canadiens have yet to encounter this play-off season. And for the first time, they are not the team with the hot goal. Halak was pulled in game one after letting in 4 goals in 14 shots. While Flyers’ goalie, Michael Leighton, has saved 94 out of 98 shots as of game 5 of the Boston series.
We have seen time and time again in playoff hockey that anything can happen. Halak is 2-0 in games after being pulled. With a whole city watching their every move, the Montreal Canadiens will not back down easily. The Canadiens need Cammalleri to start getting shots on net, rather than taking them along the boards. They need to buckle down, charge the net and get ready for battle.
One thing is for sure – this is going to be a very physical, hard fought and exciting conference championship and I would not want to miss a single game of it.
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