Montreal came back down 3-1 vs. the defending champs, the Pittsburgh Penguins, and won the best of 7 series. What's better than that? The Flyers came from 3-0 down to become only the 4th team in the 3 professional sports who follow the best of 7 format.
-Teams Analysis-
Montreal is led by a big group of small players. One of which is the NHL playoff leader in goals, Mike Cammalleri. Remember last year when Calgary thought "Jay Bouwmeester can carry us into the playoffs, but we'll have to sacrifice a little depth on offense." The sacrfice came in the form of Mike Cammaleri who was quickly grabbed up by the Habs that summer. He now has a league leading 12 goals, along with 6 assists is 3rd in the leagues with 18 points. He's a smallish forward who will always have to be accounted for with his speed and shot. I see a guy like Timonen out there matching up with him.
Hal Gill and PK Subban have been the talk of the town in Montreal. Gill has done in impressive job star shooting, first Ovechkin then his former teammate Sidney Crosby. We will see if he has trouble as the Flyers do not possess a top dog and instead have many useful weapons. PK has gone from prospect to stardom over the past few weeks. His calmness and smart puckhandling skills have gotten him to the tops ice time on the Habs and have landed Quaterbacking the Powerplay.
Not enough can be said for the way Jaroslav Halak has played this postseason. He was exiled of the starting job against Washington in the 1st round but got it back and has played spectacular with it. Posting a .933 save percentage and a 2.42 goals against. He had a shutout the last time these two teams met, he will have to be just as good to carry this team further.
As for the Flyers, goal scoring is anonymous, their goals come from any of those powerful top 3 lines. In their miraculous comeback last series their cold hands got hot. Hartnell scored in game 5 and again in game 7 after not scoring for 22 games. JVR has been subject of much controversy and has been as on and off as it gets, however he scored that 1st goal of Friday's game 7 and turned the switch on. Simon Gagne symbolized the comeback of the Flyers. After breaking his toe in the Devils series Gagne came back early for Game 4 vs the Bruins, where he scored the overtime goal. Next game in a 4-0 beating in boston he tallied 2 goals. and then in the Finally with 7 minutes left in the third he stepped up and sent the Flyers into the next round.
On Defense shot blocking has become top priority with a sudden shake up losing Brian Boucher. Pronger while being a great leader off the ice has set the example for the other dmen on the ice. Pronger and Kimo Timonen have been instrumental in blocking shots these past two series. The play of Matt Carle has most people wondering "all we had to do was get rid of Steve Downie?" While Downie, a 1st round pick of the FLyers in 04 had a great season playing next to Steve Stamkos, Matt carle is playing some of the best hockey of his career in this postseason, putting up 4 assists in the Flyers desperate game 4 effort.
Micheal Leighton was thrown into the fire when Brian Boucher got hurt game 5 in Boston. He battle back well though stopping 44 of his first 45 shots. Although he looked a little shaky in game 7 letting in 3 early ones, he bounced back and stopped every shot after that in a 4-3 victory. Before he went out with injury March 16th he was the best player for the Flyers day in and day out. Once he gets confortable he will return to that undoubtedly form, the question is how long will that process take?
-Teams Leader-
Montreal:
Cammalleri leads in goals (12) and points (18)
Philadelphia:
Richards leads in assits (7) and points (17) and is second on the team to Danny Briere(7) in goals(5)
-Matchups to watch-
Hal Gill vs ???, Gill has been put up against top guys all playoffs chances are he will do the same as Chara and matchup vs Richards. Although Danny Briere's line with Hartnell and Leino have been pilling up the big goals.
Flyers D vs Cammalleri, the Flyers in the first series weren't very good on plays along the boards. This will not be the cases with a small Canadiens offense. Play will be centered around getting pucks to the slot. Cammalleri will be the guy they want to have the puck, Flyers D will have to force him away form shooting oppurtunities. I expect when Pronger and Carle are out the to have Carle on him with Pronger covering the passers to him. A big fast guy like Coburn who blocks a good amount of shots could be a favorable matchup too against that 1st line of the Habs.
Game 1 Sunday at 7:00 pm at Philadelphia.
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