Last night, the Montreal Canadiens completed a 4-0 sweep of the Tampa Bay Lightning with a 4-3 win in game four of the series. However it seems like no one in the national media wants to give the team the credit they deserve. Excuses abound, talk of French referees, talk of Ben Bishop’s injury, talk of John Cooper refusing to use Kristers Gudlevskis til the score was 3-1 in game four (P.S. this is a goalie with a .901 save percentage in 34 AHL games this season, he’s no saviour), and other excuses abound.
Here is a message to those who don’t want to recognize the Canadiens’ accomplishments. Newsflash people: the Habs were the better team in all four games of this series. It wasn’t the goaltending injury to Ben Bishop, Gudlevskis wouldn’t have made a difference, and it wasn’t the officials who made the difference in this series. What was the difference? It was Montreal being the best team on the ice every night.
The Habs showed real depth in this series. In both games 1 and game 4 they got goals from all four lines. In games two and three, the first line created chances but only managed one goal. No matter, Rene Bourque and Brendan Gallagher, and Tomas Plekanec and others were able to pitch in with secondary scoring. P.K. Subban may not have scored any goals, but the defenceman continued to lead the way with five assists in the series.
Here are some facts for you. The Habs outshot Tampa in every game of the series. The corsi and fenwick numbers tell us that the Habs had more possession than Tampa in every game. The number of offensive zone faceoffs indicate that Montreal had Tampa on their heels throughout the series. Don’t trust the stats? A simple eye test shows the Habs played a better defensive system in every game, and the Habs had more quality scoring chances in every game. I lost track of the number of breakaways the Habs had in this series. I lost track of the number of wide open shots from the slot that Montreal generated. I lost track of the number of rebounds the Habs pounced on in front of the Tampa net, while rebounds in front of Carey Price were cleared by defenceman or smothered by the Montreal goalie.
Ask yourself this, has anybody Seen Stamkos? since game one. Montreal completely shut him down, and this strong defensive game is nothing new. Yet Tomas Plekanec gets no consideration for the Selke Trophy despite shutting down the league’s best night in and night out. Add to that strong defensive play from the backen and Tampa’s best player was completely invisible in games 2, 3 and 4 of this series. This analyst is sick and tired of Tomas Plekanec, P.K. Subban, and Josh Gorges not getting any credit for the shutdown defensive games they show. Subban is still widely seen in media circles as a defensive liability. Well this defensive liability was a large part of shutting down one of the best goal scorers on the planet. Wake up people. What games are you watching?
What about Tampa’s best defenseman, and their tallest player (people keep saying Montreal is too small to win in the playoffs afterall), in Victor Hedman. Where was he in this series? The only time I noticed Hedman in this series was when he was constantly losing puck battles and coughing up the puck to David Desharnais, Montreal’s smallest player. Sure he got a lucky bank shot goal late in game 4 but really, the numerous times that Desharnais took the puck away from Hedman and created a scoring chance is the defining moment of Hedman’s playoffs.
So really, media, I ask you to watch the series again, and look at how well the Habs played, because they earned this win, it wasn’t handed to them in any way.
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