Game 5: Montreal 1 @ Carolina 2

I don't know which game Jack Todd was watching last night, but the one I tuned into on RDS looked more like a lame-duck pee wee team taking on the Carolina Hurricanes in an exhibition game than a real NHL playoff game between the 'Canes and the Montreal Canadiens. This game was not exciting, nor was it close, nor was it entertaining. The Canadiens were pure awful for the second straight game in a row; they didn't put an ounce of effort into this one at all. And now they're down in their first round series against Carolina, 3-2, and on the brink of elimination from the playoffs.

It seemed like pretty much every Canadiens player out there had a complete change of heart after the Saku Koivu injury. Before that incident, the team was making perfect passes and dangerous offensive plays. They were skating amazingly fast, and, most importantly, were scoring lots of goals and winning games. The past two games, however, have been remarkably different. Only Tomas Plekanec, Alexander Perezhogin, Richard Zednik, and Francis Bouillon have really shown up to play. The rest of their teammates stayed home, and I have a theory as to why.

Koivu is injured; Kovalev is injured (where, we don't exactly know); and the refs are clearly not on the Habs' side (although, surprisingly enough, Kerry Fraser actually seemed to put away his personal vendetta against Montreal last night - he actually called high sticking and goaltender interference against the 'Canes!). All things considered, it doesn't make sense for the Habs to advance to the second round to face the Ottawa Senators. Why risk more injuries, and risk making Kovalev's worse, when you know there's no chance of beating the Sens if you're not 100%?

I don't believe anyone who says that Koivu's absence is the reason behind this club's lack of motivation. Koivu is not as big of an impact player as everyone makes him out to be, and he certainly hadn't been playing that way in the games before he got injured. A team just doesn't turn the switch to "off" when one of their players gets injured; if anything, they play harder to avenge his loss. The Canadiens have done nothing of the sort.

It's a shame that their season will have to end this way, but, truth be told, the 2005-'06 Canadiens were and continue to be a team of extreme ups and downs. Unfortunately, that's the way it goes with these Habs, especially considering that they are a team in transition. We'll look more at that later, but for now, let's just enjoy the last bit of active hockey this team will play before they pack up for the summer. There's no way this team is winning Game 6; one game is all we have left.