CANADIENS
Montreal

1-5

SENATORS
Ottawa

Game Report

Don’t say that you weren’t warned.  After Game 4, you read on these pages that the Senators played with confidence for the first time in the series, for the final 10:55 of the game.  They were brimming with confidence on Friday night, riding that horse into Montreal and outplaying the Canadiens for a full 60 minutes.

Once again it was Ottawa’s Dave Cameron who made adjustments and it was the Senators who executed the game plan. Carey Price had bettered his Ottawa counterparts in each of the first four games so Cameron sent his troops to clog up the front of the Montreal goal.  With the wall set and the addition of a lazy back check by David Desharnais, the conditions were set for the Senators first goal, the first by struggling forward Bobby Ryan in an eon.

The Sens would repeat this formula throughout throughout the game, with their forwards creating traffic in front of the Canadiens net and Montreal defenceman powerless to move them. Ottawa also relied on their power-play. With two goals in Game 5, the Senators are clipping along with a 31.2 per cent success rate. The Canadiens penalty-killers, an asset during the season, have been ineffectual.

Torrey Mitchell was on the ice for four goals against, Brandon Prust for three.

But all this seems to be contrary to the standard media line that goaltender Craig Anderson stole the game for the Senators.  After all, it was Anderson with 45 saves in the game. But unlike the Senators, the Canadiens forwards rarely went to the net. And when they did, they were effectively boxed out. The result was few screens, redirections or second chances for the Habs and a busy, but not difficult night, for Anderson.

While the Canadiens have been inept at creating offense at even strength, the power-play has been downright anemic. It is now 1-for-19 in the series, an embarrassing 5.3 per cent.  David Desharnais is averaging 3:07 per game on the power-play and has just a single assist to show for it. In fact, it is his only primary point of the playoffs.

Desharnais’ two points were both registered in Game 2, otherwise he has been a no-show.  Yet the chosen one continues to receive icetime, prime linemates, and offensive zone starts. Desharnais is ranked 46th for centres in the playoffs, just behind Calle Jarnkrok, Nashville’s third line pivot.

Desharnais had zero shots on goal in Game 5 and zero shots attempts.

Lars Eller had a strong game on Friday night co-leading the team with four shots on goal. Eller was best Habs forward by far but, at 13:50 of ice time, played just 49 seconds more than Torrey Mitchell, the fourth line centre, who was minus-2.  More often than not, Eller would begin his shift in the defensive zone with the play ending with a freeze by Anderson.

Despite the lack of offensive zone starts, Eller leads the team with an 83 per cent Corsi at even strength with his unfairly maligned linemate Jacob de la Rose at 81 per cent.

While the Canadiens bench boss may have scored hollow victory in the media game at the start of the series, he has been outcoached where it matters: on the ice. Dave Cameron was not afraid to make a change from his young phenom goaltender (so branded by the media) to Craig Anderson.  After their aggressiveness was being exploited by the Canadiens quick strike offense, he dialed back the forecheck.  And in Game 5, he sent his forwards to the front of the Canadiens net to obstruct Carey Price, who had been dominating the goaltending battle in the first four games.

So what does Therrien have in store for Game 6?  We’ve seen stubborn and arrogant in this series. The opposition has made adjustments.  Now it’s time to display some coaching talent.

Therrien’s cavalier attitude after Game 4 was telling. He should have noticed that the Senators confidence had returned and had prepared accordingly.

▲     Lars Eller, Tomas Plekanec, Alex Galchenyuk

▼     David Desharnais, P.K. Subban, Brendan Gallagher, Torrey Mitchell, Brian Flynn, Brandon Prust, Michel Therrien

1.  Craig Anderson  OTT
2.  Erik Karlsson  OTT
3.  Alex Galchenyuk  MTL

• “We came out of the gate really hard. They took advantage of their opportunities.”
• “It’s playoff hockey. It’s intense and that’s the way it is.”
• “At times, I thought we got some net front presence. Ottawa did a good job taking the eyes away of Carey Price. Even if we got net front presence, we gotta make sure that we do a better job.”

P.K. Subban

• “We did a lot of things well in the first part of the game. I don’t think we could have had a better start than the way we started. We put pucks on net. We had opportunities to score. You’ve got to give their goaltender credit. He made some big saves. I thought we did an OK job of taking his eyes away, but you have to do a great job of that to score in the playoffs, especially against great goaltenders.”

Max Pacioretty

• “At the end of the day, we’re up 3-2. This is a good team we’re playing against. Nobody said it was going to be easy. They definitely have a lot of heart. They battled back from the [NHL Trade Deadline] and played some of the best hockey in the League. We were expecting them to play that well and their goalie is playing probably the best I’ve seen him play. We can’t focus on that. We’ve got to worry about winning one game and winning a series.”

Carey Price

• “We have to find a way of get into Craig (Anderson’s) eyes.”
• “We have to get in front of the other net and keep chipping away at it.”
• “Whenever you’re facing a hot goalie, the recipe is simple, get in front of him. Try and bang in rebounds. There’s no secret to it.”
• “We need to get in front of the goalie and throw pucks towards the net. I’m not telling any secrets here.”

Senators forward Bobby Ryan

• “I thought it was the difference in a lot of the goals. Carey (Price) is going to stop everything he sees, he’s that good, and for us to create some traffic, put some bodies in front of him and just get him maybe outside of his comfort level is something that we needed to be successful, and I thought we did a good job of that [Friday].”

Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson

• “We’re taking it one game at a time, which we have for a long time now, and all we’re worrying about is Game 6. We have to win that one to even survive and we’re not even worrying about Game 7 right now. We’ve got to come into our building and we know they’re going to come out hard like they did [Friday] and they’re going to play well.”
• “They’re a good team and we just have to keep doing the same things over and over again and keep improving a little bit more for every game that goes on, which I think we have throughout the series.”

Senators goalie Craig Anderson

• “It’s still a long road to go. We have to continue to work hard and be ready for the next one. We’ve been very fortunate that we’ve been able to come back and win the next two, and we’re really looking forward to getting there Sunday and trying to win another one.”
• “When we went down 3-0 we knew we had a tough hill to climb, just like it was back at the end of January, February; we were having a hard time just stringing some wins together and we’re in that same situation. We’re just trying to string some wins together and give ourselves an opportunity at the end of the day.”

Senators coach Dave Cameron

• “[Anderson has] been a real good goaltender in crucial games in the playoffs. I don’t know why anybody’s surprised. We didn’t expect anything less.”
• “There’s certainly frustration on their part, and at the end of the day a sure sign of frustration is when they’re taking cheap shots at your goaltender, who’s a real good player for us.”