Decisions loom for Habs after early exit
General manager Marc Bergevin likes to say that as long as they have goalie Carey Price, the Montreal Canadiens have a chance to win the Stanley Cup.
But when his team scored only 11 goals in six games against the New York Rangers, even solid play by Price wasn’t enough to keep the Canadiens from being eliminated from the first round of Stanley Cup playoffs.
The series ended with a 3- 1 defeat in New York on Saturday night, the Rangers’ third straight win after falling behind 2- 1 to start the best- of- seven series.
Price allowed only 12 goals and had an excellent .933 save percentage, but a team that laboured to score in the regular season couldn’t get enough offence going in the playoffs.
“It was a really close series, every single game was contested,” Montreal winger Brendan Gallagher said after the game. “It was just one of those things where they did a few more good things than we did.
“It’s disappointing. I love the group that we have in here.”
The group was assembled for a long playoff run, looking to make the most of Price in his prime.
Last summer, Bergevin felt he added the missing pieces with the controversial trade of P. K. Subban to Nashville for shutdown defenceman and power play ace Shea Weber, as well as the signing of two- time Cup winner Andrew Shaw and skilled Russian winger Alexander Radulov.
Weber was strong in the post season and could have had more than his one goal if not for ringing a few off goalposts. Radulov was a human dynamo and led the team with seven points in six games, but Shaw’s series was cut short without a goal after five games with an injury.
Artturi Lehkonen continued an impressive rookie season with two goals and four points in the post- season.
But after that, the attack went mostly silent. Captain Max Pacioretty was held to one assist. Alex Galchenyuk also didn’t score. Gallagher and Tomas Plekanec played some of their best hockey of the season but each was limited to one goal.