Flyers Take A Big Lead

I just finished watching the Philadelphia Flyers secure a 2-0 advantage at home over the Montreal Canadiens in the Eastern Conference Finals, which certainly hasn't been the story of the NHL playoffs. Protecting home ice in the NHL just doesn't seem to be the same as home court in the NBA. The Canadiens, though they return to the Belle Centre, which has been an incredible place to play this post season, are in big trouble in this series. Here are the 3 major points that stuck out in watching this game:

Rebounds

The first 2 points can actually be talked about under the same heading. There are two aspects to the way rebounds are affecting the play in this series and there are two ends of the ice at which it is happening. Jaroslav Halak has been spectacular so far in the NHL playoffs. You rarely ever find him out of position. He has been magnificent in his ability to square up to shot after shot. The one blip I have seen in his game (and possibly mentioned earlier this post season) is that he surrenders a lot of rebounds. Many times Halak is able to guide these rebounds to a safe area, but there are plenty of case where he cannot. This puts a lot of pressure on the defense. The Montreal defensemen would be wise to pop in their D3: The Mighty Ducks DVD and skip ahead to the part about clearing out the garbage in front of the net. Against their previous two opponents, the D was able to control the crease. This series has not gone the same way. The reason being...

Size

The Flyers are bigger than the Canadiens and they are bigger at both ends of the ice. the Montreal Defense is struggling to clear out Halak's rebounds, because the power forwards of the Philadelphia Flyers are out muscling them in front. Outside of Hal Gill, the Canadien's are not that big as far as defensive units go. Roman Hamrlik is 6'2" but is getting too old to play the physical style necessary to fight this Flyer team. The Flyer front-liners are battling for position and winning, and it is creating chances for the Flyers to capitalize on a stud goaltenders one weakness. Granted, Halak has given up soft goals as well in this series, but I think these are coming from the fact that Jaro is clearly overwhelmed. He wasn't overwhelmed when facing 50 shots a game from the snipers that Pittsburgh and Washington offered. However, he is rattled by the physical control the Flyers are exerting.

The Flyer's defense is big, too. The scoring for Montreal comes mainly from Mike Cammalleri and Brian Gionta. On a good day, the two forwards are just over 11' tall between the two of them. These small forwards are struggling to find room on the ice among the Flyers big defensemen. Chris Pronger is a giant out there, at 6'5". The physical play and the long reach is hampering Montreal's ability to find any rhythm offensively. The Philly D is also doing what the Montreal D can't. They are taking care of their own crease. Mike Leighton has not been giving up many rebounds, but what few fall out, the men in orange are disposing of accordingly. Take away shooting lanes and clear out rebounds, and BOOM, the opposition has ZERO goals in the first two games. If the Canadiens don't find away to fight through the physicality of the larger Flyers, they going to have a lot of trouble keeping scores tight in this series.

Special Teams

The Montreal Canadiens are 0-8 on the power play so far in this series, and easy to calculate 0%. Meanwhile, the Flyers have scored 4 of their 9 goals on the power play, including the first goal in each game. The Canadien power play looked sloppy in Game 2. They did not have a consistent net presence (which speaks to the size issue) and were looking to settle for shots from the circle, but the shooting lanes were not there. The Flyers have used their dominance in front of the net to turn their power plays into production. The Inhabitants need to use the man advantage to find those lanes that have been missing during Full Strength play. They need to at least feign a threat in front of the net so that they can move the Flyer defensemen around when they cycle from the net to the boards or to the rear. That's the only chance they have of opening lanes among the big bodies. Hal Gill is going to have to be huge both figuratively and literally for the Habs in front of the net on the Flyer power play. In fact, the Flyers have been known to use Chris Pronger to establish net presence when up a man. Perhaps the Canadiens could try something similar with Gill. Though he hasn't the hands to be a major scoring threat, he can definitely change the atmosphere in front of Mike Leighton. Leighton has been way to comfortable for the first 120 minutes of this series.

The Canadiens better hope a change of scenery can change the course of this series, or else they may be spending longer at home then they originally thought they would when the planned tonight's flight.

-APT