Why It’s Them and Not Us
The Montreal Canadiens completed a spectacular comeback in game 7 against the Penguins (no doubt to the delight of Rangers fans). After two rounds they have ousted the presumptive best two teams in the East including the defending Stanley Cup champs. However, Montreal limped into the playoffs and had at best, a so-so regular season. Entering spring hockey The Habs were seemingly in a very similar spot as the Rangers. So… what is the difference?
Systems (point A – you’ll see what I mean later on…)
In my opinion, the main difference between The Rangers and the Canadiens has been the system. Each Hab this post season had a role and stuck to it. They all played within their system and its working. Crosby and Malkin were largely spectators this series thanks to the Canadiens focusing on shutting them down. At times throughout this year Ranger fans have bemoaned the fact Tortorella didn’t emphasise his system and the longer the season went on the more we were reminded of Tom Renney hockey – not Torts’ system. Well, success encourages belief and with the Caps series behind them every Canadien was on the same page. Next year from a Rangers point of view it is critical Tortorella gets his team to buy into his system. It’s equally important that he enforces it all year long and doesn’t revert to a plan B.
Contributions throughout
Dominic Moore (remember him?), Maxim Laperriere, Andrei Kostitsyn, PK Subban, Josh Gorges… Montreal got contributions throughout the line up as well as from their ’go to guys’. Knock one player down (Spacek, Gill missed time) another stood up to be counted (PK Subban). Parenteau aside, when loss of form or injury struck and the Rangers had to call up players, generally the call ups/replacements were not effective. Sanguinetti, Locke, Heikkenen, Byers, Eriksson and Potter totalled 31 games in call ups which amounted to 1 goal, 2 assists. That’s not good enough. Whether through more balanced ice time for the lines, contributions throughout the line up next year need to be there. It was only at the end we saw an effective (productive) 4th line.
Scott Gomez
Yes Scott Gomez. Im not bigging him up individually but the fact is Montreal has a center that is capable of getting the puck to their snipers. Gomez is around a point/game this playoff and they’re nearly all assists. Consequently Cammalleri leads the playoffs in goals and was huge against the Pens and Gionta also has 7 goals. Gomez will never earn his contract but this playoff (when comparing The Rangers to the Habs) he exposes our big weakness of no front line center. Neither Cammalleri nor Gionta are Marian Gaborik but they DO have help.
The D – and the right kind of D
Just like Gomez will never earn his deal, Josh Gorges and Hal Gill will never be Bobby Orr but the thing is, see point A. They have a role and they do it admirably. Gill was brought in for his size, his shot blocking and his defence first conscience. Gorges also has size and is more than happy to take a slapshot to the chest. Same goes for O’Byrne. Where are the Rangers equivalents? There aren’t any. Despite serious injuries on D the Habs haven’t panicked but have played within their system which has allowed individuals to play their natural games and cope with the losses. The Montreal D was constructed appropriately with roles in mind for each individual.
So….
The Eastern Conference playoffs have been personally frustrating if only for the fact the Rangers (atleast equal in pure talent, if not in possession of more than Montreal ) are being shown what is capable when a team plays to a plan while Montreal are showing the Rangers exactly how much the Rangers main deficiencies have really cost them. These days in a cap era you don’t have to be the 1975 Canadiens or ‘88 Oilers. There are opportunities even for teams with flaws. Would it be us in the Conference Final if we had a #1 center and a defensive linchpin? I hope you’ve been watching Mr Sather and Mr Tortorella.
