MONTREAL – Had the Tilt-A-Whirl screeched to a stop at this particular juncture, the eulogy on these Montreal Canadiens would have been kind: 2013-14, second-round loss to Boston, six games.
May they rest in peace.
Instead the hockey season lives on in beautiful Montreal, at least for two more days, and just about anything seems possible now. Facing elimination, the Canadiens dressed an extra skater named "Bruit" – better known as "noise," en francais – and proved to everyone that they can hang with the big, bad Bruins.
There was an extra step in a furious Montreal forecheck and an uncharacteristic hint of indecision from the Bruins in their own end. Perched on the edge of a cliff, the Habs dragged Boston over to the ledge with them. This game was played with the pace and desperation of a Game 7 and that’s why we’re going to get one.
Wednesday night. At the legendary Gaaahden on Causeway.
"It’s going to be great," Habs defenceman P.K. Subban said. "I can’t wait for the crowd, the noise, the energy in the building. I can’t wait to take that all away from them."
Some of these players have a long memory, as it turns out. A Game 7 loss to Boston in overtime three years ago still stings. The Bruins went on to win the Stanley Cup that spring and Montreal is still wondering what might have been.
"I thought we deserved more in that game and it didn’t happen for us," Subban said.
They certainly seized the moment on Monday night. Fans didn’t know if they were showing up for a party or a funeral as they worked their way into a frenzy that made the Bell Centre sway. It was incredible.
The ice certainly shook under Kevan Miller’s skates; that can be the only reasonable explanation. How else did that puck end up out front?
Two minutes had barely elapsed in Game 6 when the Bruins defenceman retreated to his corner with plenty of room to take an innocent-looking pass. Yet somehow it shot right in front, where Lars Eller’s eyes grew wide as he deposited the generous gift behind Tuukka Rask.
And boy did the building roar.
Ears still ringing a couple hours after the game, I can’t say for sure whether it ever stopped. We came here to see if the Habs had the will to keep fighting and they answered defiantly. Dale Weise, of all people, even returned Boston’s biceps flex as the second period came to a close.
"That’s practically our best game of the season," Canadiens coach Michel Therrien said.
Eller’s early goal kept any doubt from creeping into the minds of Habs players that Brendan Gallagher had predicted were "going to have nerves." It certainly helped that they could rely on the goaltending of Carey Price, who has now allowed a grand total of one goal in four must-win games in 2014: The Sochi Olympic quarterfinal, semifinal and gold-medal final, and a 4-0 victory on Monday night.
He closed the book on a potential Bruins comeback during a frenetic stretch in the second period. We went a full 5:11 between whistles – "A leg burner," according to Price – and the majority of play was spent in Montreal’s zone.
The goaltender dove across his crease to miraculously keep Milan Lucic from hitting an open net and had to stand in as defencemen Josh Gorges and Mike Weaver were trapped out for three straight minutes. The Bruins swarmed and swarmed. Still nothing.
In Round 6 of this prize fight against the belligerent Bruins – "since we’re big we might as well win battles, right?" Boston coach Claude Julien had said earlier in the day – Therrien elected to go small. He sent in Daniel Briere for Travis Moen and boldly gave 21-year-old defenceman Nathan Beaulieu his first Stanley Cup playoff appearance for the hulking Douglas Murray.
Let’s deem that decision a success.
The smooth-skating Beaulieu helped make the Habs transition game just a little bit better, especially when he sent the snake-bitten Max Pacioretty in on a breakaway with the help of a "member’s bounce." The puck skipped along the ice and Pacioretty outraced Zdeno Chara and Rask hesitated slightly before getting beat between the legs.
David Desharnais had mentioned on Sunday that aggressively pursuing Chara could turn him into "just another defenceman" and Montreal later held up that goal as living proof. It was just the second time the Bruins captain was on the ice for a 5-on-5 goal against all playoffs.
"Everyone is human, you know?" Pacioretty said. "There’s no Superman out there."
That was the theme of the evening and it will almost certainly be the mantra for them heading into Game 7. The Canadiens are always trying to summon the spirits of the past and you can’t help but notice the good omens they’ve seen this spring. When Carl Soderberg rang a shot off the crossbar in the first period it was the 10th time Boston had struck iron in this series.
There is no concern about a case of anemia coming on.
Even in the third period, a slapshot that Price stopped bounced straight up in the air and landed behind him. With Lucic swinging wildly at the puck, Desharnais dove and batted it right off the goal-line.
"I didn’t see anything but his numbers," Price said. "I had no idea where the puck went. It popped up in the air and he made a great play on that."
And so they play on. This will be the ninth time in 34 playoff meetings where Montreal and Boston have stretched one another to seven games in a series. Just as it should be.
There is a danger sometimes in making too much of rivalries, but you couldn’t mistake the old feelings coming to the surface here. The final minute saw a prolonged scrum with punches thrown from both sides. Zdeno Chara caught Weaver in the jaw and Weaver later said ""He has a good right. That’s Boston for you."
Julien accused Desharnais of slew-footing Brad Marchand.
"We’re perceived as the bad guys and they’re the good guys," the Bruins coach said. "I’m not portraying ourselves as innocent here; I’m just saying it takes two teams to tangle and that’s what happened."
This one is too close to call. The Bruins brought their best in Game 5 and Montreal responded with a whole new gear in Game 6. Asked what he expects from Game 7, Julien replied "I expect us to win."
We know this: The Habs won’t roll over. They had that chance on Monday night and didn’t take it. Now they’re heading back to Boston with plans of inflicting a little heartache on the local populace.
"I play to win, I don’t care who’s there," Subban said. "I don’t care if there’s nobody in the stands. I’m going there to win. It’s irrelevant to me. I hope that it’s a hostile environment, it makes it all better."
Oh man, who can wait?
Let’s just drop the puck right now.