Much has been made of the fact that the vast majority of NHL prognosticators had the Montreal Canadiens not making the playoffs in their preseason predictions. Heck, even as late as a month ago, many were still waiting for the team to fall into a tailspin at any moment. But with the all-star break behind us and the Habs just a point back of the once-thought uncatchable Senators, any lingering questions about the team's staying power have been answered.
Without a doubt, the three keys to that success have been (in no particular order): the development of the team's younger players, the lack of injuries to key players, and Alexei Kovalev having his best season in a Montreal uniform.
The one question left to answer then, is how far these keys will carry them. Of course no one can answer that now anymore than they could way back in September. What we do know for certain is that how far this team goes will depend almost entirely on how quickly they learn to win.
With tonight's win, Montreal now boasts a +20 goals for to goals allowed difference in the first period of its games. That difference drops to +6 in the second and just +2 in the third. It could be argued that its thanks to that strong first period record that the team can afford to go into a shell late in games. But what needs to be remembered in all this is how young the key pieces of the Canadiens' puzzle are. Mike Komisarek, Tomas Plekanec, the brothers Kostitsyn, Guillaume Latendresse, Christopher Higgins and Maxime Lapierre have a combined 25 games of playoff experience.
There's an art to scoring back breaking goals, as there is to cutting scoring chances down once you've secured a lead. Just ask the New Jersey Devils, who have been clinical about it since the mid-90's.
The Habs, on the other hand, have blown one goal leads in the final minutes of games as often as they've dropped games that they've led by two or more goals. Tonight, they came within inches of allowing the Sens to erase a 4-1 lead the Bleu-blanc-rouge took into the third period.
There is reason for optimism if you're a Habs fan, though. Montreal struggled at home in the first half of the season, and the argument could easily be made that a lack of experience was to blame. Players pointed to an eagerness to put on a show early in games and an unwillingness to stick with the game plan if the team failed to light the lamp in the first five minutes of the game. A pair of rookie mistakes if there ever were any. Having won four of their last five home games, the youngsters seem to have made the necessary adjustments to correct their bad habits.
It remains to be seen if they learn to close out games as quickly as they've learned to take early leads in them. If they can between now and April, and it says here that they will, look for the Habs to walk away with the Prince of Wales trophy. If not a certain other silver chalice...
Keywords: Canadiens, chances, youngsters
