The Glorious Rise of the Montreal Canadiens

The Blackhawks play a beautiful puck possession game with crisp passing and quick puck movement. The Capitals play a freewheeling, high flying offensive game that churns out goals like nobody's business. But not the Montreal Candiens. They don't do any of that. Yet there's no team left in the Stanley Cup Playoffs that I enjoy watching more.

There are numerous reasons for the Habs' ability to compete with the East's elite this post-season. Their goalie is outstanding, his reflexes are sharp and his positioning is impecable. Their defensemen play conservatively, block shots, and keep their sticks in the passing lanes. Their forwards come back hard on D, and break out quickly and effectively. When they can't break out, they clear the zone. Simple as that. And when they're on offense, they get the puck to the net, and crash it hard. This is how hockey should be played.

The Canadiens can beat the Washington Capitals and the Pittsburgh Penguins because they play the purest form of hockey. They don't rely on perimeter offense and star power. They rely on the boards and their grit. Yes, Alex Ovechkin and Sid Crosby can score fifty goals and a hundred points in a season, yet they failed to get past an eighth seeded team that was the worst team to get into the playoffs statistically. For all the Pens' and Caps' star power, they still lost. Because one player does not make a team.

The team game is everything in this sport. That's how the Nashville Predators challenged the Blackhawks in their first round series. That's how the Canadiens win games that they're outshot 55-21 in. Don't get me wrong, this is not a revolution in hockey. Teams will sign players like Ilya Kovalchuk to big money contracts for regular season goals and post-season disappointments. Yet a trend is going to rise in this league after this kind of run, if you want to win the Cup, then build a team. The Chicago Blackhawks have six snipers and playmakers as their top six forwards, and six grinders and checkers as their bottom six. As it should be. Their defensemen are great defensively and offensively, as it should be. A team needs to be balanced, and stick to their gameplan. The Habs are doing just that. They want the Cup, and they're going after it with grit, and determination.

Hockey is not the world's prettiest sport. But it is the world's best, because of stories like these. Only in hockey could an eighth seed consistently outperform juggernauts that are ranked seven seeds above them. The game needs to be simplified, and the Canadiens are proving why. If you want a cup, don't get a Kovalchuk, get a Gionta. By no means will the NHL see a revolution in team construction after this, but teams would be wise to learn from this run. A team is not a tower which has been built upon the foundation of a scoring winger. A team is a wall, and every brick counts just as much as every other brick.

Every purist puckhead in the world should be rejoicing at what's occurring in the NHL right now. Because the Montreal Canadiens are showing the big boys how hockey was meant to be played.