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Playoff GDT: Round 3, Game 5 Canes v. Habs 5/29 8:00

A

andyt

Canes Moderator
Staff member
The Prince of Wales Trophy will be in the house. Hopefully we get to see it presented.

The Canes struck for 3 goals in under 3 minutes to put Wednesday‘s game away early. Montreal was held to 18 shots as Freddie Andersen pitched his 3rd shutout of the playoffs. They didn’t skate yesterday, they stayed in Montreal overnight on Wednesday and flew home yesterday. They’ll skate at 10:30 this morning.

The Habs seem like they‘re out of answers. And they look fatigued, the 2 7 game series look like they’ve finally taken a toll on them. We’ll see if they make any lineup changes at their skate.

TNT for TV, Mike and Tripp on radio, Forslund on national radio.
 
I’m not so sure Montreal got tired in Game 4 but I am convinced that they ran out of answers. It looks the same in a lot of ways, since it takes longer to process decisions when you’re not sure what to do. I’m sure they’ll watch tape and figure some things out coming into Game 5, but Carolina has been varying the pressure points on their vaunted forecheck so much, that I’m not sure whatever they cook up will last into the 2nd period. The Hurricanes are a level of dialed in that I’m not sure I’ve seen before.

That said, this game is far from a given. Dobes has been tremendous, they still have a couple of guys who can create danger out of very little space and they still have that Montreal belief/swagger thing. Backs to the wall, I expect the Canadiens to produce an outcome far more in line with Games 2 and 3 than Game 4. Fans and media are making a lot of noise about beefing up the physicality by making lineup changes, but I’m just not sure they really see the problems with that. I’ve seen several comments along the lines of “dress Xhekaj and at least he can drop the gloves.” Sure. With who, exactly? No, unless I’m reading him all wrong, I think St Louis will dress a D group that he thinks can best handle Carolina’s pressure and that kind of precludes meatheads. Maybe he goes with Gallagher up front. He’s not getting anything from that 4th line anyway and he can still agitate. I’m more interested to see if St Louis sticks with that attempt to balance out his forward lines that he blended up in the middle frame of Game 4. I thought that gave Montreal a bit of a jolt even if they didn’t actually score. With first change, I do expect him to shorten the bench tonight. You’re gonna see a lot of Hutson and a lot of Suzuki with a lot of different dance partners.

For Carolina, the order of the day is minding their own knitting, I think. Go out, figure out the right pressure, get to the recycle game and try to grind them to dust. Rod’s been preaching making it hard on the opponent on every shift and I think that’s the theme tonight as well. That’s all just noise until you go actually do it, but the Hurricanes have largely been doing just that.
 
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