Stanley Cup Playoff Preview - Philadelphia vs. Montreal

Hockey Betting Lines

05/15/2010 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - There are so many things about this year's Eastern Conference playoffs that defy logic. Perhaps this fact sums it up best; the Philadelphia Flyers, the seventh seed in the East, have home-ice advantage in the conference finals.

The Flyers earned their trip to the conference finals by beating New Jersey in five games in Round 1 before making history in their seven-game series victory over Boston.

Philadelphia was down three games to none against the Bruins, but won the final four games of the best-of-seven set to become the first NHL team in 35 years to overcome a 3-0 deficit to win a series. Not only did the Flyers come back from down 3-0 in the series, but also trailed 3-0 in the first period of Game 7 before charging back for a 4-3 victory in front of a stunned crowd at Boston's TD Garden.

All this from a team that needed to win a shootout over the New York Rangers on the final day of the season to even make the playoffs. Now, the Flyers have home-ice to start the Eastern Conference finals and are just one step away from reaching their first Cup Finals since 1997.

Philadelphia also entered the Boston series with some serious injury problems to key forwards Simon Gagne, Jeff Carter and Ian Laperriere. Carter and Laperriere are still sidelined, but Gagne rejoined the team in the middle of the conference semifinals and made a huge impact.

Gagne was injured in Game 4 of the opening-round series against the Devils and returned to action for the fourth game of the Boston series, when Philadelphia was already down 3-0 and on the brink of elimination. Gagne scored the OT winner in Game 4 and notched four goals and one assist in leading the Flyers to wins in each of the set's final four games.

While Gagne powered the Flyers late in the Boston series, fellow forward Danny Briere was a force throughout. Briere notched five goals and five assists over the seven games and has seven goals and 15 points total in this year's playoffs.

A native of Gatineau, Quebec, Briere drew the ire of Habs fans during the summer of 2007 when he turned down the Canadiens offer and instead signed with the Flyers. The passionate fans at the Bell Centre have since made a habit of booing Briere every time he touches the puck and, even though the Flyer scored a hat trick in a 6-2 win at Montreal on Feb. 13, the crowd will likely continue with the strategy in this series.

Flyers captain Mike Richards has also been a solid contributor on offense in these playoffs, notching 17 points (5 goals, 12 assists) to place him fifth in the league heading into the conference finals. Richards is a strong two-way player and penalty killer, but needs to improve on faceoffs, having won just 47.5 percent of his draws in the playoffs.

Claude Giroux is another key weapon on offense for the Flyers, as the 22-year- old forward has five goals and six assists in 12 playoff games this year.

Although the Flyers were able to get Gagne back during the Boston series, the team also lost goaltender Brian Boucher to injury when he went down with a sprained left MCL in Game 5. However, Michael Leighton, who had been the starter before going down to a high ankle sprain in mid-March, stepped in for the rest of the series and stopped 66-of-70 shots (.943 save percentage) to help Philly close out the series.

Leighton had never seen action in an NHL postseason game before Boucher's injury in Game 5, but outside of giving up three goals in the first period of Game 7 against the Bruins, he seemed more than up to the task.

Philadelphia's defense leans heavily on its top two pairings, as head coach Peter Laviolette has four blueliners averaging more than 24 minutes of ice time per game in these playoffs.

The main man at the back is Chris Pronger, who has 11 points in this postseason, making him the highest-scoring defensemen left in the playoffs. He also leads all players with 29 minutes, 39 seconds of ice time per game.

Pronger is the rare defensemen, who, at 6-foot-6, combines size and physical toughness with the ability to beat a team on the offensive end. His heavy slapshot is also a big weapon from the blueline.

Fellow defensemen Matt Carle and Kimmo Timonen have seven and five assists, respectively, in the playoffs. Carle leads the Flyers with a plus-seven rating, while Timonen is second on the team with an average of 26 minutes, 59 seconds of ice time per contest.

The weak link in Philly's top-four defensemen is the inconsistent Braydon Coburn, who has size and speed, but often makes bad decisions with the puck. After the top-two pairings, the Flyers usually fill out their defensive corps with the seldom-used duo of Ryan Parent and Lukas Krajicek.

Philadelphia considers special teams to be a strength and the Flyers have the numbers to prove it. Philly was third in the league -- one spot behind Montreal -- with a 21.4 percent success rate on the power play during the regular season and has scored on 21.7 percent of their chances with the man advantage in this postseason.

The Flyers were 11th in the NHL during the season on the penalty kill, stopping the opposition from scoring 83 percent of the time. They have killed off 83.6 percent of their penalties in this year's playoffs.

MONTREAL CANADIENS (8th seed, East)

REGULAR SEASON RECORD: 39-33-10

2010 PLAYOFFS: Defeated Washington 4-3 in conference quarterfinals; defeated Pittsburgh 4-3 in conference semifinals

(Sportsbook Betting Lines) - You can call it destiny, skill, or even luck, but the fact of the matter is the Montreal Canadiens are just one step away from getting back to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in 17 years.

Whatever you decide to call the Habs, it's hard to argue that the eighth- seeded club's current standing as one of two Eastern Conference finalists is surprising, to say the least. In fact, Montreal is the first No. 8 seed in the East to reach this round since the NHL switched to the current playoff format in 1994.

Montreal needed to come back from a 3-1 series deficit to beat top-seeded Washington in the opening round, but the Habs never seemed to be overmatched in the conference semifinals against Pittsburgh, last year's Stanley Cup champions. The Canadiens never allowed the two-time defending conference champs to get more than a one-game lead in the series, as the team's alternated wins and losses until Montreal was able to take both Games 6 and 7.

Of course, as the eight seed, the Canadiens will once again start this series on the road, but not having home-ice is of little concern for a team that has proven to be extremely resilient so far in the postseason.

As many folks have pointed out, its hard to consider the Canadiens an underdog in any series, after all, they are a franchise with more Stanley Cup titles (24) than any other NHL organization. But it's clear that outside of the Montreal locker room, this particular group of Canadiens weren't expected to do much in the postseason. In fact, it was somewhat surprising that head coach Jacques Martin's team even qualified for the postseason.

So, just how have the Habs been able to do it? With a total team effort on defense, timely goal-scoring from forwards Brian Gionta and Michael Cammalleri, and superb puck-stopping from goaltender Jaroslav Halak.

Cammalleri and Gionta, with 12 and seven goals, respectively, have accounted for nearly half of the Canadiens' 39 goals in this postseason and Cammalleri's goal total is the most by a Montreal player since Guy Lafleur also had 12 in the 1975 postseason.

Halak, meanwhile, has stopped 420 of the 450 shots thrown his way for a mind- boggling .933 save percentage.

But, as cliche as it sounds, this truly has been a team effort for the Canadiens. Cammalleri and Gionta are providing most of the offense, and Halak is taking care of business at his end, but in between are a group of guys that have completely bought into the system put in place by Martin.

This emphasis on team was clearly illustrated in the series victory over Pittsburgh. Already without defenseman Jaroslav Spacek since early in the Washington series, the Canadiens lost their top blueliner Andrei Markov to an ACL tear in Game 1 against the Pens. Of course Markov's injury meant more responsibility for defensemen like Hal Gill and rookie P.K. Subban, but Martin also needed his forwards to step up and help slow down Pittsburgh's relentless offense.

And that's just what Montreal did, the club came together and made it their main priority to frustrate the Penguins and it worked time and time again. In the end, Pittsburgh, which exploded for six goals in Game 1, scored a total of 12 times in Games 2-7.

"We just all have this feeling that if something doesn't work out or goes wrong, it's OK because you know that someone is going to be there to back you up," said Gill. "That's what a good team does."

The good news is Spacek returned for the final two games against Pittsburgh, and there is speculation that Markov could return at some point during the conference finals after it was originally believed he would miss the rest of the postseason.

One thing the Canadiens could improve upon for this upcoming round is getting consistent scoring from players other than Cammalleri and Gionta. The rest of Montreal's forwards have been playing responsible hockey, but the Habs could be in trouble if either of their top scorers suddenly go cold.

Tomas Plekanec has four goals in the playoffs, but all of his tallies came in the opening round against Washington. Montreal would also like Andrei Kostitsyn to snap out of his goal-scoring funk. Kostitsyn had a hat trick in Game 2 against the Capitals, but hasn't found the net since. Scott Gomez's only goal of the playoffs came in the series opener against Washington.

Despite the lack of balanced scoring, Montreal has still performed well on the power play in the playoffs, cashing in 11 times on 51 opportunities with the man advantage (21.6 percent).

As far as the defense goes, if the Canadiens had enough depth to shut down Pittsburgh even without Markov, they certainly have enough on the blue line to make scoring difficult for the Flyers. With guys like Spacek, Gill, Josh Gorges, Roman Hamrlik and, even the rookie Subban, the Habs are stacked with loads of talent at the back end.

Even with the strong defensive effort the Canadiens are putting forth, Halak has had to turn aside a ton of rubber in this postseason. He has faced a league-high 450 shots so far, but, with an 8-5 record and 2.42 GAA in this postseason, the Czech backstop clearly doesn't seem to mind the extra workload.

Halak and Montreal's penalty killers have also come up big while down a man in this postseason. The Habs enter this round with an 85.5 percent success rate, killing off 53 of the opposition's 62 power-play chances.

MATCHUP

This marks the first time since the NHL adopted its current playoff format in 1994 that the bottom two seeds in either conference will play a series with a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals on the line.

Not only are Montreal and Philly the lowest two playoff teams in the East, but they both finished the regular season with 88 points, leaving them with the fewest points out of the 16 teams that made the postseason from either conference.

The Flyers and Canadiens are meeting in the playoffs for the sixth time. Montreal won three of the previous five encounters, but Philly beat the Habs in five games the last time the franchises met in the 2008 conference semifinals. Prior to that the previous two encounters were for conference titles, with Montreal earning a trip to the Cup Finals in 1989 -- two years after Philly beat them for the Prince of Wales Trophy in 1987.

The clubs split four meetings during the regular season. Each team picked up a win at home and on the road in the 2009-10 season series. Montreal has taken 11 of the last 14 regular-season meetings overall.

Leighton started three games against Montreal this season and went 2-0 with a 2.04 GAA and .922 save percentage. He had never faced the Canadiens prior to this year.

Halak is 3-2 with a 2.55 GAA and ,921 in five career games against the Flyers. He was 1-1 with a 3.02 GAA in two starts versus Philly this season.

It's difficult to gauge a series like this, considering for most of the 2009-10 season when thinking about the contenders for the Eastern Conference title it was unlikely that either the Flyers or Canadiens were to be included in that conversation.

Both teams will be playing with nothing to lose in this series, having already exceeded the low expectations set for them. Expect to see a pair of teams leaving it all out on the ice in what should be a closely contested and entertaining series.

Despite being the last seed in the East, the Habs have to be favored in this series after knocking off No. 1 Washington and the defending Stanley Cup champions in the first two rounds.

The Canadiens will stick to the formula of strong team defense in front of Halak and, if they continue to get scoring from Cammalleri and Gionta, Montreal should be able to grind out another series win not unlike its triumphs from the first two rounds.

Sportsbook Betting Lines predicted outcome: Canadiens in 7