THE MATCHUP
Montreal Canadiens: 47-26-9, 1st in Atlantic
New York Rangers: 47-28- 6, 4th in Metropolitan
Montreal: Whenever Carey Price is manning the Canadiens’ crease, the Habs think they can win. And rightly so. After hitting a moribund stretch in the beginning of the season, Price is once again near the top of his game. Three years ago, he faced the Rangers in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final and ended up being knocked out of the playoffs when Chris Kreider slid skates-first into him, leaving him with a seriously injured knee. Price doesn’t wear his emotions on his sleeve but know that inside he’ll be playing with a chip on his shoulder at the sight of the Broadway Blueshirts.
New York: The Rangers looked old and painfully slow during their five-game elimination at the hands of the eventual champion Pittsburgh Penguins last spring, but an injection of speed and youth transformed Alain Vigneault’s team into one of the quickest, top-scoring squads in the league. One area of concern for New York: because the Rangers have been locked in to the first wild-card spot in the East for a while now, it’s been more than a week since they’ve played a meaningful game. Rust could be a factor, although solid veteran leaders like Rick Nash and Ryan McDonagh should be able to keep that from happening.
Season series: Canadiens won 3- 0 All- time playoff series: Rangers lead 8-7
Who wins? The Rangers have more firepower up front, but the Habs have bought into new coach Claude Julien’s defence-first system and are quite stingy in their own zone. Plus, when it comes to this battle of elite goalies, we give a slight nod to Carey Price. After all, the Habs have home-ice advantage — and the Rangers’ Henrik Lundqvist is just 4-9-2 with an ugly 3.87 goalsagainst average and .877 save percentage in the regular season alltime at the Bell Centre. Canadiens in six
Montreal’s key player: F Alexander Galchenyuk: To this point in his young career, he’s shown flashes of being a difference maker. Now is his time to take the next step on the post-season stage.
New York’s key player: F Chris Kreider: As far as the Bell Centre fans go, he’ll be wearing a bull’s-eye on his jersey. He needs to keep his composure and continue to produce offensively.
Canadiens lineup
Max Pacioretty, Alex Radulov, Phillip Danault
Artturi Lehkonen, Alex Galchenyuk, Andrew Shaw
Paul Byron, Tomas Plekanec, Brendan Gallagher
Andreas Martinsen, Michael McCarron, Dwight King
Defence pairings
Shea Weber, Andrei Markov Nathan Beaulieu, Alexei Emelin Jeff Petry, Brandon Davidson
Goalies
Carey Price Al Montoya
Rangers lineup
Mats Zuccarello, Chris Kreider, Derek Stepan
Michael Grabner, Kevin Hayes, Jesper Fast
Rick Nash, JT Miller, Mika Zibanejad
Tanner Glass, Brandon Pirri, Jimmy Vesey
Defence pairings
Nick Holden, Brendan Smith Marc Staal, Ryan McDonagh Dan Girardi, Brady Skjei
Goalies
Henrik Lundqvist Antti Raanta