HockeyHabs face final playoff tuneup vs. Leafs

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(By Richard Wolowicz/Getty Images)

Read up on the latest tidbits and trends as Hockey Night in Canada's play-by-play voice Jim Hughson takes you behind the scenes and into Saturday's featured game.

This Week's Work: Montreal Canadiens at Toronto Maple Leafs -- Saturday, CBC, CBCSports.ca, 7 p.m. ET.

The Script

Even when the Ottawa Senators were atop the NHL standings and led the league in scoring, Jacques Martin was seen as a boring defensive coach.

Now, as his Montreal Canadiens play Toronto in one last tune-up before the playoffs, he and his team will need to be at their boring best if their playoff run is going to last long.

The Habs are not very big and don't score much, but they can defend, their special teams are better than average and they have Carey Price, so there's always a chance for another long spring on the rink.

Martin's mantra is that of many coaches: defend first and chances will come. Wherever he's been, his teams have had a decent defensive record and good special teams. The Canadiens rank 24th in goal-scoring but are in the top-ten in goals-against and special teams.

Their power play ranks eighth, which is pretty good considering Andrei Markov has been out all season, and the penalty kill is seventh without Josh Gorges, a mainstay who's also hurt.

Price has had a brilliant season, and if goaltenders are involved in the Hart Trophy discussion, he should be at the top of the list. When you ask which player is most valuable to his team, there are few, if any players, ahead of Price.

What he can't do is score, and a lot of his teammates are in the same boat. Scott Gomez hasn't scored in 28 games and looks like he may never get another goal. Andrei Kostytsyn has scored just 20 goals and only one in his last eight games, and Tomas Plekanec has tailed off with just one in his last 13.

The third and fourth lines rarely score, so it's a good thing that Brian Gionta and Mike Cammalleri look like they might be warming up at just the right time.

The Canadiens can advance if Price is great, if they score on the power play and if they defend impeccably.

Just like Martin teams usually do.

In the spotlight

Set aside his flair for the dramatic, his penchant for finding a way into every replay, and his propensity for making simple plays more difficult than they need to be, and P.K. Subban should be in the conversation about the Calder Trophy.

Instead, he's just in every conversation.

The media loves him, opponents hate him, and Pernell Karl is unfazed by either. If Captain Jack Sparrow was a hockey player, he might be P.K. Nothing looks easy, most everything gets done, there is always carnage, and at the end of the day he'll have the fair maiden -- if not the pot of gold.

Since the Habs lost Markov and Gorges, Subban, at 21 years old, is playing over 22 minutes a game. He plays the power play, kills penalties, and teams with Hal Gill on the shutdown pairing. Few other rookies have that responsibility, and fewer still embrace it the way Subban does.

Add to that the fact he could set a Montreal record for goals by a rookie defencemen, all while doing every interview and receiving every possible face wash, and P.K's life is pretty cool -- and busy too.

It's likely at some point in his career Subban will embrace the "less is more" theory. He'll find that many of his dramatic defensive plays are necessary only because of his offensive gambles, and that he could play five more minutes a game if he became a little more efficient. But for now Subban is content with being the human highlight reel along with the opponents' piñata, and love him or hate him he's unquestionably entertaining to watch.

On the Hot Stove

There is little doubt and less reason to question that James Reimer will be the Leafs' top goaltender at the start of next season.

The big decision is how to back him up.

Reimer's body of work just isn't extensive enough to suggest he can carry the load for a full season and the Leafs don't want to write off another year because they failed to have netminding insurance.

Maybe it's J.S Giguere again, or Jonas Gustavsson, or maybe someone like Alex Auld, but choosing a backup is important when the No. 1 is a 23-year-old with half a season in the big league. And GM Brian Burke's track record for finding goalies isn't particularly good.

For all of the excellent moves he's made, Burke hasn't been stellar at choosing goalies. In Anaheim, where he won the Stanley Cup, Giguere was already in place. In his other three managerial jobs, Burke has gone through 25 goalies in 12 years.

In Vancouver, Burke tried 13 goalies in seven seasons, and the team never cracked the top-10 defensively. From Martin Brochu to Kevin Weekes, he never found a No. 1 anyone else thought he could win with.

It was his present assistant Dave Nonis who made the deal that got Vancouver Roberto Luongo, so maybe he should be entrusted with finding a reliable backup for the Leafs, one who could take over the top job if needed.

Reimer is Toronto's fifth goalie in two years. Choosing the sixth might be the most important decision of the team's off-season.

Outtakes

How much do early season games mean? The only team that was out of the playoff eight in the Eastern Conference at the end of October that is assured of post-season play are the Buffalo Sabres. They're in at the expense of Atlanta.

Montreal won two games in the past week to push its record over .500, 13-12-4 in the last 29 games. The Habs' playoff lives have been saved by a five-game winning streak in late February and early March and, of course, by a 7-2-1 start to the season on the shoulders of Carey Price.

From the Stat Pack

Once again, the Leafs' late-season run has fallen short, but this time it feels a bit different. The lineup has more promise, and the sample size was a little larger.

Here's how the Leafs would sit in the Eastern Conference if the season could only have been pushed back to a Jan. 1 start.

Eastern Conference standings since Jan. 1, 2011

Team	W	L	OTL	PTS
Washington	26	10	6	58
Buffalo	26	11	6	58
New Jersey	27	13	3	57
Boston	25	13	6	56
Toronto	24	14	7	55
Philadelphia	23	13	6	52
Carolina	22	15	7	51
Montreal	22	14	6	50
Tampa Bay	22	14	6	50
Pittsburgh	22	14	5	49
NY Rangers	21	19	3	45
NY Islanders	19	19	6	44
Ottawa	16	21	5	37
Florida	13	22	10	36
Atlanta	14	19	6	34

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