Montreal Canadiens: Better Luck Next Year

Another year, another disappointment.

Montreal had one of its best seasons in six years, but was quickly extinguished in the second round of the playoffs.

From the first series you could tell that they were falling apart, fast.  Montreal was favored to win the series and although they did win, it didn't come easy.

Coming off a first-place Eastern Conference win, they were to take Boston out easily. Seeing as they beat Boston in their season series 8-0, some even thought they might sweep. 

That wasn't the case. 

Montreal easily took Game 1, and won Game 2 thanks from the heroics of Alex Kovalev in overtime. 

Then came Game 3, Boston's first home game.  It was a close, hard fought game, but the overtime heroics were in Savard's favour.  Montreal looked at this loss as a wake-up call, and won Game 4 with Carey Price shutting out Boston.

It looked as if Montreal had a stranglehold on the series. 

Habs fans were proved wrong once again. 

With Game 5 coming back to Montreal, it seemed like a gimme.  Montreal ended up losing 5-1 and then losing Game 6, 5-4.  Game 7 was back in Montreal, and they needed to win.

Carey Price made up for his not-so-stellar performance in Game 5 by shutting them out once again, the first goalie since Patrick Roy to record two shutouts in one series.

With the Game 7 win, the Canadiens were off to play Philadelphia in the second round. 

In Game 1 it didn't look as if Montreal really had a chance, but yet again Kovalev pulled through and with 28 seconds left in the game, scored the tying goal.  Another game was going to overtime.  With just over a minute in, Kostopolous came in on Biron and picked up his own rebound to win the game.

That was the last game Montreal would win in the 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs. 

The next four games all went to Philly, stunning the Habs and raining on the fans' parade. 

The drive for 25 that was once alive, was now dead.

So what did these two series have in common for Montreal to lose? 

Two words: power play. 

Montreal had a stellar power play in the regular season, finishing first in the league with a 22.4 percent average. 

But the Habs' playoff power play unit was just a little over a disappointing three percent.

Montreal didn't look like a playoff team at all.  It just looked they didn't want to win it. 

Montreal needs to get their special teams units back into shape if they want to have the same run they did last year.