With their 3-2 overtime victory at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night, the Montreal Canadiens have new life in the Eastern Conference Final against the New York Rangers. And they have rookie goaltender Dustin Tokarski to thank for it. Sure, Alex Galchenyuk scored the deciding goal in the extra session, but the Habs were lucky to get that far. The Rangers looked to be the better team for most of the game and it showed on the shot-clock, with the home team out-shooting Montreal 37-25.
Everyone knows how important goalies are when it comes to the playoffs; many have carved their names into the annals of hockey with magical, and some not-so magical, post-season performances. But as game three of the Eastern Conference Final demonstrated, what goes on between the pipes has been unusually important during the 2014 Montreal Canadiens playoff run.
The most obvious blue-paint factor in the Canadiens playoff run is, of course, Carey Price. Price is the definition of a franchise goaltender, and his stellar play during the regular season was one of the biggest reasons the Habs made the post-season in the first place, as the fifth overall pick of the 2005 draft posted career-bests in both save percentage (.927) and goals-against average (2.32).
In their second-round match-up with the Boston Bruins, Price was nothing short of incredible. He stole game one of that series with a 51-save performance to secure a double-overtime road win for his team. With his team facing a must-win situation in game six, he posted a 26-save shutout to force a game seven, a game seven in which he allowed just one goal on 31 shots to oust the Stanley Cup favourites.
But in the first game of this series against New York, Price allowed four goals on 20 shots. As their star netminder struggled, the Canadiens looked rattled in what became a 7-2 drubbing, getting into penalty trouble and surrendering three powerplay goals on seven opportunities to a Rangers powerplay that had gone just 3-for-26 (11.5%) against the defensively-shaky Penguins.
Price played only the first two periods of that game before leaving with what was later announced as a series-ending injury. (SIA Profile) Suddenly, Montreal’s hopes for their first Stanley Cup Final berth since 1993 were removed from the shoulders of an Olympic gold medallist and placed on those of a 24-year-old whose NHL career consists of 10 regular-season appearances.
But it hasn’t just been Montreal’s own goalies that have shaped their post-season. In every series they’ve played so far, their opposition’s goaltending has been a major storyline.
Canadiens vs Lightning
The Habs’ first-round clash with the Tampa Bay Lightning was supposed to feature an epic goalie battle between Price and Ben Bishop, whose breakout season with the Bolts catalyzed their return to the post-season and earned him a nomination for the Vezina Trophy. But with less than five games left in the regular season, Bishop suffered a freak elbow injury that proved serious enough to keep him out of the first few games of the playoffs. (SIA Profile) And that was all the Canadiens needed, disposing of the Lightning in a four-game sweep.
It’s true that Montreal was the better overall team in that series, and it certainly didn’t help that superstar Steven Stamkos, despite leading his team with four points in four games, wasn’t able to give his team the big goals they needed. But it’s hard to imagine that Tampa Bay wouldn’t have been able to win at least one game had their exceptional number one goalie been healthy. Instead, it fell to back-up goaltender Anders Lindback to support a relatively weak Tampa defence and give the Lightning’s high-powered offence a chance to get rolling, and the task proved to be more than he could handle.
Canadiens vs Bruins
When the Canadiens drew the Bruins for their second-round match-up, they were up against not only the NHL’s best regular-season team, but also one of its most elite goalies in Tuukka Rask. Rask was a top-five goalie in save-percentage, goals-against average, shutouts and wins as he helped his team secure the President’s Trophy. But even more daunting were his playoff statistics; during Boston’s ultimately unsuccessful run to the Finals last season, Rask posted a ridiculous .940 save percentage and 1.88 goals-against average with three shutouts in 22 games. In the Bruins’ first-round clash with the Red Wings, Rask picked up right where he left off last year, surrendering only six goals on 152 shots through five games. But things seemed to unravel quickly for the Finnish Vezina-favourite, who surrendered 10 goals on just 86 shots through the first three games of the series as the Canadiens stole home ice and jumped out to a 2-1 series lead. And although he rebounded with a 33-save shutout in game four in Montreal, the decisive game seven found Rask decidedly weak. He made poor decisions with and without the puck, looked uncomfortable in his net and ultimately gave up three goals on 18 shots to send the Habs to the conference finals and the Bruins to the golf greens.
Canadiens vs Rangers
As Montreal’s series against the Rangers continues, so too does the goaltending drama. Tokarski must not only fill Price’s massive shoes, he must also outplay Henrik Lundqvist. Lundqvist has been a story all his own, leading the playoffs in wins (10), save percentage (.931) and goals-against average (1.99), highlighting it with a heroic 40-save win at the Bell Centre in game two.
If the Canadiens dethrone King Henrik and advance to the Stanley Cup Final, they’ll have to solve a Stanley Cup champion in Corey Crawford or Jonathan Quick (who also happens to be a Conn Smythe Winner). And if they do get that far, will Price be healthy enough to play? There’s certainly been no shortage of blue-paint excitement in the Montreal Canadiens playoff run thus far, and there certainly doesn’t appear to be any shortage of it on the horizon.
For the latest sports injury news, check out our friends at Sports Injury Alert.
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