Ryan Szporer

2 weeks ago | thehockeywriters.com | Ryan Szporer

There’s no escaping the overriding narrative of the Montreal Canadiens’ five-game defeat to the Washington Capitals. You just need to go back to Game 4, in which they held a 2-1 third-period lead only for the Caps to wrest momentum away from the Habs following a huge hit by Tom Wilson on Alexandre Carrier. If you were to watch any of the media coverage after that game, an eventual 5-2 Capitals win, the general consensus had been the hit changed the series.

2 weeks ago | thehockeywriters.com | Ryan Szporer

Reading the headline, your mind probably went straight to the time the Montreal Canadiens came back against all odds from 3-1 down to defeat the rival Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round of the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs… en route to an even unlikelier Stanley Cup Final appearance. You’d technically be right, too. However, officially speaking, the Canadiens found themselves down 3-1 against the Tampa Bay Lightning in the championship series too (only to lose in five games).

2 weeks ago | thehockeywriters.com | Ryan Szporer

Washington Capitals forward Andrew Mangiapane scored a late game-winning goal to help secure his team a 3-1 lead in their first-round series against the Montreal Canadiens. Two empty-net goals closed the scoring in what was an eventual 5-2 win at the Bell Centre on Sunday. The Capitals trailed 2-1 heading into the third. However, things took a turn for the worse for the host Canadiens six minutes into the frame when Tom Wilson rocked Habs defenseman Alexandre Carrier with a huge hit.

2 weeks ago | thehockeywriters.com | Ryan Szporer

The Washington Capitals and their fans probably smelled blood in the water, when Montreal Canadiens goalie Jakub Dobes replaced a seemingly hurt Sam Montembeault in the middle of a crazy Game 3. After all, tbey had just tied the score 2-2 midway through the game when Dobes, who hadn’t played in two weeks, was forced into action. Granted, Dobes had generally been impressive in the regular season as a rookie, with a 7-4-3 record, 2.74 goals-against average (GAA) and .909 save percentage (SV%).

3 weeks ago | thehockeywriters.com | Ryan Szporer

The Montreal Canadiens are on the verge of hosting their first playoff game in literally four years on Friday. It shouldn’t get any better than that in the minds of most Habs fans. However, after the Habs lost both of their series-opening games in Washington, down two games to none to the Capitals, it’s understandable if some are relatively down in the dumps. Not all is lost, though.