NHL Eastern Conference Finals: Could Montreal Canadiens' Luck Run Out?

With the Eastern Conference Finals beginning today, we get to see two teams that were not expected to make it this far in the Philadelphia Flyers and Montreal Canadiens. This also marks the first time in NHL history that a conference finals sees both the seventh and eighth seed playing for a spot in the Stanley Cup Finals.

With everybody talking about the unexpected Habs and the miracle run that they've been on, there are a number of reasons why they could be facing a much tougher test in Philadelphia.

Of course, the Canadiens defeated the best team in the league in Washington and then went on to defeat the defending Stanley Cup Champions. But could Philadelphia put up a much tougher test for the Canadiens? I think so.

Phildelphia plays a different style of game than both Washington and Pittsburgh. Both of their offenses relied on the play of their star players (Ovechkin, Backstrom, and Semin for the Capitals, Crosby and Malkin for the Penguins).

This allowed Montreal to concentrate the core of defense on them. The less room that they had to play, the chance that Washington and Pittsburgh had to play. Hal Gill showed how good of a shutdown defenseman he actually was.

But can he keep it up against Philly?

I have no doubt that Gill will be able to shut down whoever he's up against, but the difference is that Philly does not just have that one player that Montreal needs to concentrate on. Like Montreal, they play a team game.

When you look at the offensive players that need to be watched on Philadelphia, Mike Richards, Claude Giroux, Daniel Briere, and Chris Pronger all have more than 10 points in this playoff season.

But you can't stop just there. Simon Gagne and Ville Leino both have seven points in eight games and at the end of the Boston series Scott Hartnell and James Van Riemsdyk both picked up their game. It's not gonna be an easy task to shutdown the Flyers like it was for Washington and Pittsburgh.

Another thing that the Flyers possess that might be a challenge for the Canadiens is their physical play. Philadelphia finally has that physical instinct that they lost with the end of the Broad Street bullies and leading the way is captain Mike Richards.

He is the heart and soul of this Flyers team and also leads them in points with 17. He will be one of the players that Montreal will need to watch closely this series, as well as Daniel Briere who was unbelievable against Boston, scoring five goals and adding five assists.

Playing against Philadelphia is going to be a tougher test than it was in the first two rounds for the Canadiens. Philadelphia has three complete lines that have a nose for the net and who could all be scoring threats. Montreal is going to have to find a way to shut them all down, but with their depleted defense it's going to be a lot tougher than you would think.

Of course Jaroslav Halak has proved to be almost unstopable for the Canadiens in these playoffs he does have one weak point that the Flyers will have to exploit. His high blocker side is his weakest point but even that is pretty strong. He has great lateral movement and a glove hand that is as as good as most of the top goalies in the league.

Halak has carried this team on his back, facing the most shots out of any other goalie still in these playoffs by a mile. Also, when your team has the most blocked shots in the playoffs as well, it's easy to see that they rely on him to play well in order to win.

Out of all the teams that have played in these playoffs, Montreal and Philadelphia have showed the most heart and desire to win. This is going to make for a very good and competitive conference finals, but in the end I think that the Flyers have too much scoring depth to be denied a spot in the Stanley Cup Finals.

I feel that the Flyers' physical play will prove to be just too much for the Cinderella story Canadiens and I don't think that Halak will be able to steal this series on his own. The Canadiens are going to need to be more physical than the the Flyers and find more scoring that does not come in the form on Cammalleri or Gionta.

Only then will they be able to have a chance in this series, but as it stands right now, I see the Flyers winning in six.