Honest feeling about playoffs?

[Mathradio]

I'll say it again.

Its the other clubs are leery of meeting Montreal.

Every playoff-bound team is leery of each other by now...

 

[Marc the Habs Fan]

Maple Leafs - I'd feel confident against Toronto due to their lack of experience where it matters most (goalies) and their most productive center (Kadri) has no experience either and that will hurt them a lot.

It would just be a zoo with all the hype and media coverage. With our defence, facing a team with a 3 line attack like TOR's is a potential problem. That's another team that plays way too well in our building.

Bruins - I feel confident against the Bruins too, I find its a matchup that can go either way...who took them to game 7 two years ago? We have a good track record against the Bruins, if we meet them I won't be disappointed even if we wind up with a loss but I certainly wouldn't expect one.

Well I was listing 1st round opponents...almost impossible we face them. I actually would feel pretty decent about facing Boston.

Rangers - They haven't scored a goal on us all season, I know they're bound to score some on us sooner or later but their offense isn't as good as it looks on paper, they're a team that has trouble scoring goals and we've done well against them in terms of scoring goals this season, so why can't it continue?

We haven't faced their current team. We never played them at full strength either. We played 1 game against Lundqvist - and Nash was out that night. We have no idea how we matchup against the current version of the Rangers, but I suspect their current team would do better than the one we saw 10 days ago.

Jets - What has Winnipeg done to habs for them to be worried about them? if anything I'd like to have them as our matchup, i don't care if their arena is loud. If their crowd cheers hard then the bell center will cheer even harder...

The point is, it will be very hard to win in Winnipeg. So you could be looking at a long series against a team with some very big wingers.

Senators - Ottawa's Karlsson won't be ready for the playoffs imo, he's only started skating and the playoffs are way too close for him to make a return. Spezza has already been ruled out for the playoffs IIRC...that leafs Alfredsson, Anderson, Turris, Latendresse and a bunch of rookies or inexperienced players with no playoff experience.

Renaud Lavoie reported tonight Karlsson is aiming for the final week of the season.

Spezza has not been ruled out from what I can tell, but is perhaps the least likely of the 3 to return.

And considering the significant amount of players with zero playoff experience or less than 10 games of playoff experience we have on our own team, the Sens lack of experience would sort of be cancelled out.

 

[Miller Time]

i feel similar to in 07-08...

while I want to get caught up in the hype of a really impressive (and surprising) regular season, I think the roots of our success thus far don't translate very well to type of post-season game the NHL always turns into.

- speed, drawing penalties & a very effective PP are our bread & butter...

--> whistles go away in the playoffs, which means fewer PP's and less ability to benefit from using our speed (as opponents are given more leeway to use physicality to slow us down)

add to that losing our most physical dman, from a team that isn't deep in physical players to begin with, and it's hard to see us battling through multiple playoff rounds against teams that will use physical play & lax officiating to their advantage more than we can.

that said, Price could be that difference maker if he goes on a tear... our team has shown great resilience consistently this year (bouncing back from losses or coming back in 3rd periods), and we have some pretty impressive young players with the chutzpah to punch above their weight in pressure situations...

If I had to make a prediction, I'd say a 7-game 2nd round exit or 5-6 game 3rd round exit, but I am more than happy to just stick my feet up and enjoy however many playoff games we get this year as I really didn't expect any!

 

[BobbyFischer*]

As soon as Emelin was out for the season... I'm not expecting as much.

 

[Habssince89]

i feel similar to in 07-08...

while I want to get caught up in the hype of a really impressive (and surprising) regular season, I think the roots of our success thus far don't translate very well to type of post-season game the NHL always turns into.

- speed, drawing penalties & a very effective PP are our bread & butter...

--> whistles go away in the playoffs, which means fewer PP's and less ability to benefit from using our speed (as opponents are given more leeway to use physicality to slow us down)

add to that losing our most physical dman, from a team that isn't deep in physical players to begin with, and it's hard to see us battling through multiple playoff rounds against teams that will use physical play & lax officiating to their advantage more than we can.

that said, Price could be that difference maker if he goes on a tear... our team has shown great resilience consistently this year (bouncing back from losses or coming back in 3rd periods), and we have some pretty impressive young players with the chutzpah to punch above their weight in pressure situations...

If I had to make a prediction, I'd say a 7-game 2nd round exit or 5-6 game 3rd round exit, but I am more than happy to just stick my feet up and enjoy however many playoff games we get this year as I really didn't expect any!

We're one of the best teams 5on5 though. Unlike 2008

 

[OldCraig71]

I will keep tongue in head and leave it all at the mercy of the gods.

 

[Habtchum*]

The team is not built yet, and not mature enough to go far in Playoffs. Way too many small forwards and d-men. Price MUST play on his head and really steal games like Halak did three years ago to give a chance to his team.

I don't think Bergevin & Molson were expecting the team to do so good in the regular (shortened) season. Just making the playoffs will satisfy them. Next year is the BIG test.

 

[JesusBouillon]

A Leafs-Habs first round matchup looks really likely now. Not sure how I feel about it, but it'd be great to eliminate them.

 

[MasterDecoy]

- speed, drawing penalties & a very effective PP are our bread & butter...

speed yes. but also quick transition, intense forecheck and quick breakout. and like someone mentioned, we are one of the best ES team in the league this year, unlike usual years

 

[MasterDecoy]

The team is not built yet, and not mature enough to go far in Playoffs. Way too many small forwards and d-men. Price MUST play on his head and really steal games like Halak did three years ago to give a chance to his team.

I don't think Bergevin & Molson were expecting the team to do so good in the regular (shortened) season. Just making the playoffs will satisfy them. Next year is the BIG test.

price is playing very average and yet, we are second in the east. oh the humanity...

 

[Power Man]

We are gonna sweep every team, tbh

 

[CN_paladin]

price is playing very average and yet, we are second in the east. oh the humanity...

Well Price needs to stop letting in softies in the playoffs like has has in the past.

Until then, I don't even think we can make it past the 1st round if we meet a team that plays extremely well at the Bell Centre like the Leafs.

 

[WhiskeySeven*]

Have faith.

 

[HarlemsFinest]

this is a feeler year. we shouldn't even be here (even though we weren't as bad as our record). so this year, there's a shot, but we'll go with it and see what happens. the next few years is when they will push to make us a true force to reckon with for a good number of years. i have no expectations this year. i think they can win a round or 2 but they can definately still win the cup. they do have something special in the room. good vibes can go a long way i just hope we don't lose any more players to injury,

 

[Trist and Sea]

We will get to the Stanley Cup final, facing the San Jose Sharks and Gomez will score the game winning goal in overtime of game 7... seriously, how bad would that be ?

 

[Tabarouette]

Have faith.

i'm no religious but this is my honest feeling too

 

[WeThreeKings]

I'm just hoping the team realizes that we need more finishers around the goal mouth and make moves involving Gionta and DD to assess this.

 

[Agnostic]

Habs are in the playoffs right now. They need to win the division to start any type of playoff roll. Series against the Leafs is a coin toss especially with Toronto doing so well at Bell Centre.

 

[sharks9]

Habs are in the playoffs right now. They need to win the division to start any type of playoff roll. Series against the Leafs is a coin toss especially with Toronto doing so well at Bell Centre.

I think our last 2 games against them are going to be huge. The thing that sucks is that if we lose both games to them we'll most likely face them in the first round, but if we win both games against them we'll probably end up facing the islanders or Rangers.

 

[SirClintonPortis]

I wouldn't look at our high seed as any source of comfort. After all, one year, a Montreal team that was a lowly 8th seed knocked down two Goliaths with two of the best players in the world leading them.

 

[MoonlightGraham]

With favorable matchups I'm hopeful we can go to the Conference Finals against Pittsburgh. And we've been playing well against them so anything can happen.

I'm worried if we meet Toronto in the first round though.

Although I think this year is a surprise and it's nice to be where we are, so an early exit wouldn't be the end of the world. With our young players improving we have a 3-5 years window opening next year to make it all the way.

 

[bud12]

Tor vs Mtl in the first round would be awesome

 

[TennisMenace]

I wouldn't look at our high seed as any source of comfort. After all, one year, a Montreal team that was a lowly 8th seed knocked down two Goliaths with two of the best players in the world leading them.

Agree. No matter who we play, it will be a very tense difficult struggle. We just don't dominate anyone and most of our wins are nailbiters. The Rangers would have been the best match up, but maybe not now. I do noth think a Leafs first round match up is good for us.

 

[417]

Playoffs is all about matchups..some teams might be the best on paper but don't match up well vs other teams

In the end though, as it relates to the Habs...for me, just making the playoffs will be a huge advantage for this team, the further they go is just gravy

 

[CHarlie]

i dont care who we play........I am so pumped for next year this years playoffs is such a bonus.