Philly pressure makes Halak and the Canadiens appear ordinary
By: Turner Sports Desk
Jim Turner
Turnersportsdesk.com
May 17, 2010
So how did the Philadelphia Flyers penetrate the tough
defense and hang a 6 spot on the Canadiens? They used speed,
pressure and paying the price to get quality scoring opportunities. Unlike the
Capitals and Penguins, the Flyers were not as much concerned about quantity of
shots versus the quality of the shots. The Flyers were willing to pay the price to
get to those areas and the result was a Montreal team that looked like the 8th
seed.
The Philadelphia defense was aggressive while the Philly forwards
combo of speed and grit forced the usually competent Montreal defense into
mistake after mistake in their own zone. Essentially Philly attacked their strength
and the Canadiens had no answers. The Flyers forwards swarm like ticked off wasps
and they always have bodies around the net. The Canadiens were able to
successfully deny the Caps and Penguins those high quality shot areas but
Philly’s first two goals came from those high quality areas where even “Halak
the great” could not make a difference. So what happens now? I expect Montreal
to make adjustments which is something they do quite well. The problem this
time is they are playing a team that is not so talented that they believe they
can when with a quantity of shots. The Flyers know that in order to win they
have to invade Halak’s personal space.
It should be noted that Halak has had bad games in each series
thus far, but he has always rebounded to win them. I am curious to see if Montreal can adjust to
Philly’s speed and use their aggressiveness against them. If they cannot Philly
will make short work of the Habs.