Montreal (1) Vs. Philadelphia (6)

[Guest Bruin Fan 4]

I ,for one, may have to stop flirting with you

I, for one, may have to START flirting with you

[Guest Innis_Mor]

The Flyers "toughness" is way overblown....a few guys get suspensions for dirty hits and all of a sudden they are a tough team? Even their"enforcer" Cote is not in the class of the heavyweights in the league. We have nothing to fear from this team on the physical side!!! Flyer fans like to think they are the Broad Street Bullies but this is not 1975!!!

"

Yup. Just skate on by them. Defense are some slow. Some more evidence? The meating out of hits -- Flyers' D just can't catch guys:

from TSN.ca:

-

Mike Komisarek (266), Francis Bouillon (168) and Roman Hamrlik (138)

are the Canadiens' leading hitters.

-

Jason Smith (142)

, Scott Hartnell (110) and Mike Richards (110) are the Flyers' leading hitters.

Flyers' D, other than Jason Smith, can't catch anyone (Timo can, he is good, but he doesn't hit, and that's fine.)!! I wouldn't be surprised to find out Komi has more hits than the entire 6-D line-up of the Flyers.

And wait 'till you see Modry in action (more like inaction) against the fleet Habs' forwards. It'll be a gas. He looks like he skates in quicksand. Watch him.

[Guest KORDIC3131]

I, for one, may have to START flirting with you

HAHAHAHAHA now that's funny

Yup. Just skate on by them. Defense are some slow. Some more evidence? The meating out of hits -- Flyers' D just can't catch guys:from TSN.ca:

-

Mike Komisarek (266), Francis Bouillon (168) and Roman Hamrlik (138)

are the Canadiens' leading hitters.-

Jason Smith (142)

, Scott Hartnell (110) and Mike Richards (110) are the Flyers' leading hitters.

Flyers' D, other than Jason Smith, can't catch anyone (Timo can, he is good, but he doesn't hit, and that's fine.)!! I wouldn't be surprised to find out Komi has more hits than the entire 6-D line-up of the Flyers.And wait 'till you see Modry in action (more like inaction) against the fleet Habs' forwards. It'll be a gas. He looks like he skates in quicksand. Watch him.

Komi already filled in Hartnell during the reg. season. Mike just pounded him LOL. God I hate the Flyers!!!

[Guest GreekHockeyCoach]

HAHAHAHAHA now that's funny

Now Kordic3131 is flirting with Bruins fans

[Guest KORDIC3131]

Now Kordic3131 is flirting with Bruins fans

Bobby Orr was alright, i guess LOL

[fourtrax]

Key to this series: getting our power play untracked. Philly has a lethal power play, and is going to score its share of PP goals, so we have to be able to respond, especially if they goon it up.

[Guest GreekHockeyCoach]

Bobby Orr was alright, i guess LOL

He was one of the best. Great guy too.

[Guest bigsby]

Key to this series: getting our power play untracked. Philly has a lethal power play, and is going to score its share of PP goals, so we have to be able to respond, especially if they goon it up.

agreed. just make sure begin does not get hurt

[Guest Bruin Fan 4]

He was one of the best. Great guy too.

Yes, he was .... he's an Agent for 3 of our Peterborough Petes, so I see him often here in Peterborough !

FYI, I'm his next wife ... don't tell anyone !!!

[Guest Innis_Mor]

Key to this series: getting our power play untracked. Philly has a lethal power play, and is going to score its share of PP goals, so we have to be able to respond, especially if they goon it up.

Key to every series from now on. Habs able to get away with the dismal PP against the Bruins; not so much likely going forward.

[Guest arrowsno13]

Is it just me or is Hatcher playing with a broken leg? I thought Chara looked slow against the likes of AK27 and MS32. I think we're gonna have a field day with Hatcher. Hope he stays healthy enough to play all 5 games. Prediction: Montreal Canadiens in 5...with no celebration after the game as the police will make sure of that.

GO HABS GO!!

[Guest KORDIC3131]

Yes, he was .... he's an Agent for 3 of our Peterborough Petes, so I see him often here in Peterborough !

FYI, I'm his next wife ... don't tell anyone !!!

I'm a huge Orr fan....he looks like he could still play.If only they had the surgical procedures back then like they do now.There would be no question as to Gretzky or Orr IMO.

[Guest Innis_Mor]

THN's predictions for the next round: http://www.thehockeynews.com/articles/1547...ew-Round-2.html

Includes Habs taking Philly in 7, and this gem:

Goaltending

Carey Price had the better numbers in Round 1, but he wasn’t facing Alex Ovechkin bullets. Both goalies have just seven games of playoff experience, but the 30-year-old Martin Biron must have a few more tricks stuffed in those veteran pads. Edge: Philadelphia

The author wouldn't put his name to it. Doesn't want to eat crow later! "Vet Biron has tricks", he says.

[gracie12]

Philli may play physical, but if you thought Boston's defense was slow, wait until you see Philli's. I watched a lot of Philli games this year, they are a very sloppy team. They play almost the exact same style as Montreal, but they don't play as well as a team, their more about individual plays. If Montreal gets the puck deep they'll have absolutley no problem.

Philli is great at causing turnovers and odd-man rushes, if we play smart, and our d-men play a good and smart transition game we might take this is 6 maybe even 5, but we have to work hard!

Nail on the head imho. I think this one should actually be a better matchup than Boston & should go a long way towards giving htis team some confidence - something we desperately need if we hope to compete against either pittsburg or NY

[Guest hungryforhockey]

THN's predictions for the next round: http://www.thehockeynews.com/articles/1547...ew-Round-2.html

Includes Habs taking Philly in 7, and this gem:

Goaltending

Carey Price had the better numbers in Round 1, but he wasn’t facing Alex Ovechkin bullets. Both goalies have just seven games of playoff experience, but the 30-year-old Martin Biron must have a few more tricks stuffed in those veteran pads. Edge: Philadelphia

The author wouldn't put his name to it. Doesn't want to eat crow later! "Vet Biron has tricks", he says.

Price wasn't facing the likes of Ovechkin in round 1, it's a true statement. Biron was huge and has played in more games this season during the regular season.

[jigger-1]

I just read on RDS that some paper in Philly is saying the Habs are perfectly capabable of competing with the Flyers on a physical level in a long series.

I just hope the boys don't get dragged into a mindframe of trying to hit everything that moves out there and deviate from the passing, speedy, skillful and creative brand of hockey that worked all year so far. (and worked in games 1 and 7 vs Boston).

Sure, finish your checks, but we need to dictacte our brand of hockey and get them chasing us early.

And like Weep says earlier, if we have any hopes of going far....the powerplay NEEDS to return.

[gracie12]

Key to this series: getting our power play untracked. Philly has a lethal power play, and is going to score its share of PP goals, so we have to be able to respond, especially if they goon it up.

No question. Key to our playoffs imho is getting our powerplay back into at least some sort of a threat. If it doesnt work as a deterant, well, you saw what happened in boston.

[Guest GreekHockeyCoach]

I'll tell you guys the secret to winning this series. Play the Begin line against the Briere line. As I posted above, Briere shied away from alot of hits. I watched the Washington series very closely and it was also discussed on Versus how on numerous occasions Briere left the puck in order to not get hit. The Caps gave him way too much room and their never put a body on him. In all fairness to Briere, he's a goal scorer with a good shot, when left alone he can bury them with the best of them. He needs to be hit hard and often.

[Guest KORDIC3131]

I'll tell you guys the secret to winning this series. Play the Begin line against the Briere line. As I posted above, Briere shied away from alot of hits. I watched the Washington series very closely and it was also discussed on Versus how on numerous occasions Briere left the puck in order to not get hit. The Caps gave him way too much room and their never put a body on him. In all fairness to Briere, he's a goal scorer with a good shot, when left alone he can bury them with the best of them. He needs to be hit hard and often.

Let's hope Markov doesn't do the same this series.I really noticed him shying away along the boards last series.

[Guest GreekHockeyCoach]

Let's hope Markov doesn't do the same this series.I really noticed him shying away along the boards last series.

I noticed that too, very uncharacteristic of him.

[Guest vegasrick]

I posted this in the gameday thread, but here's how I feel about the series:

This series will really boil down to how consistently the Habs decide to play. They absolutely will not be able to get away with taking five games off between good showings like they tried against Boston. Not that it's an intentional thing, but just that's it too easy to take the soft way out and avoid the hit, which, of course, leads to bad passes, giveaways, and scoring chances against. And I think Carbo learned a valuable lesson last series as well.....or at least I hope he did. You have to make your adjustments quickly....can't wait until game seven -- because there might not be a game seven!

I was glad Carbo put Kovalev and Koivu together in that last game. That was quite a good line, and it could be for the rest of the postseason.

Sure wish Pleks would get hot soon.....that would increase our offensive output greatly. And if only Higgins could bury more of his chances, many of our close games would not be close at all. I have a feeling he will work on that in the offseason and could have a real breakout year next year.

Kovalev only fell asleep for a short while last series, but man, did it cost us. I hope he got the message that you can't take even one shift off.

I expect Price to be even better in this series, not only because he gained some very valuable playoff experience against the Boo-ins, but also because our 'D' is going to be much better in front of him against the Flyers. Komisarek and Harmrlik will be solid. There's no way Markov can play much worse than he did against Boston.....ugh. There's speculation that he's injured.....but even an inujred Markov shouldn't have been as weak as he was the past seven games. Gorges is getting better.....when you don't hear his name too much, the opposition isn't getting past him much. Breezer was, well, Breezer....hot and cold. He scored a great goal to win us a game, but I still saw some unbelievably bad plays, and this from a guy who won a Cup with us in '93? Didn't all those years teach him at least a few things? I'd rather see him make no play, than one of his stellar bad plays. And we need to keep Streit playing forward, please.

We have the youngest team in the playoffs, and I think we are the most dangerous team when we play like we can. Pittsburgh will give this year a run for it....but they have a tough test against the New York Strangers. But we have the brothers Kosti....our secret weapon.

So, I'm hoping they really learned their lesson from last series, get this one over with in five games, and get the much-needed rest for the conference finals.

[jigger-1]

I think something was wrong with Markov. Some sort of injury. He was pretty bad in the Boston series and it's no coincidence we had so many problems on the powerplay.

[Guest gusmcd]

Yeah I also concurr the Habs would be favored however... look what the 8th seed Bruins did..look at how the Caps played yet lost thankgod.. Gooo Flyahs!!! and you Habs fans are not hooligans, I know it was the anarchists that went wild. but in the west island of Montreal I thought my car would be attacked when I went to parade with the frenzy on Monday night. anyways.. Peace...figures my cross-state rival would be spying in here lol.. ps.. FLYERS REIGN SUPREME

Looking forward to this series, should be another exciting one. Thanks to Bruins for taking us to game 7 and their physical play against us. It was a great series and should have prepared us for the physical, strong ,big bad Flyers. If Habs play like they did in game 7 then I see them outing the Flyers in six games. GO HABS GO

[Guest GreekHockeyCoach]

I thought this was interesting. The Caps fans are cheering for us now. Here's a link to their board, to a thread called "Let's adopt the Habs"

http://boards.washingtoncaps.com/index.php...t=0&start=0

[Guest Innis_Mor]

I watched the Washington series very closely and it was also discussed on Versus how on numerous occasions Briere left the puck in order to not get hit.

Sounds like a lot of Hab players (forwards and defense) in games 2 through 6 of Bruin series!!

One thing with Briere, can be hard to catch to get the hit in, but I do agree in general, same as Savard on Boston, don't give these guys too much room.