I've said it before and I'll say it again: this team's success is directly related to their youth and how quickly they grow up. The talent is there, there can be no doubt about that. The Kostitsyn brothers are overflowing with raw skill, Carey Price is the best young goaltending prospect in a decade, and Mike Komisarek has emerged as a dominant force in his own end. The list goes on but suffice to say that the Habs have young studs peppered throughout their lineup.
The first challenge was to see if all this young talent could come together and gel into a unit. That seems to have been accomplished given the fact that the team is perched atop the Eastern Conference and boasts the most balanced and most potent offence in the league.
The second question was would these young men be able to knock off some of the more experienced foes in their path. You can chalk another one up for the kids here. One of the strengths of this group is that it shows no fear. Toronto, Ottawa, and New Jersey are three teams who have given the bleu-blanc-rouge fits in recent years. Carey Price was sent into the fray to turn the team's luck against the Buds and succeeded, running up a 3-1 record in his first four starts against the Blue-shirts. Then there was the team's three-goal third period rally against the Devils in January. That springboarded the Canadiens to their first win of a season series against New Jersey since 1993. Ottawa (they have yet to soundly drub a healthy Sens team) remains the one obstacle left to overcome in answering this second question and that test comes tonight in Montreal.
The final challenge lies just around the corner, in April, when we will find out if the kids can lift their game to that all-important "next level" in the post-season. Given their track record (the team's AHL affiliate in Hamilton were crowned champions last year) there's no reason to believe they can't.
They say defence wins championships and that's certainly where most will point to when looking for the Habs' weak link. Rest assured this group can hold their own in the back end. First of all, defence is a team concept and Guy Carbonneau has done a masterful job of teaching this so far, convincing even offensive minded players like, Alex Kovalev, to play with intensity in their own end. The group of six defencemen itself is solid, with three pillars in Andrei Markov, Komisarek, and Roman Hamrlik, and three servicable defenders in Ryan O'Byrne, Josh Gorges and Francis Bouillon. Finally, defence is, when you get right down to it, as much about goaltending as it is anything else. With Carey Price grabbing the mantle with both hands since the departure of Cristobal Huet, goals against Montreal may become hard to come by down the stretch.
When you look at them play you see the cockiness in this squad. The line between confidence and hubris is razor thin and if anything trips these boys up it may well be that. That being said, with each step this team takes, the growth in the players game, maturity and experience is stark.
