Prior to Game 5, Washington Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau had no idea how his young team would react to being in a position to close out a playoff series early, largely because they'd never been in this position before.
After losing 2-1 on Friday night to the plucky Montreal Canadiens and their stellar netminder Jaroslav Halak, Boudreau got his answer.
And he didn't like it.
"We're not getting 20 guys playing, we're getting 13 and 14 guys every night," a visibly annoyed Boudreau said after the game. "Rather than everybody coming to play, tonight we had five or six passengers again."
But perhaps Boudreau was being a little harsh on his young club, because if it weren't for Halak's heroics he'd be talking about getting ready for the second round of the playoffs. Still, he felt his best players made Halak's life a little too easy.
"He played very good, there's no doubt," Boudreau said. "But we missed some really good looks. When you have players who are really good scorers and they miss really good looks, it's like a checker not doing his job. They've got to score those goals."
The Capitals came at Halak from all sides and in every which way in this game, but he was up to the challenge.
Afterwards, he was his usual humble self, giving praise to his teammates in spite of the fact they allowed the Caps to fire 38 shots on goal.
"I still think the guys did a great job," Halak said. "Even though they had 38 shots the guys blocked a lot of shots, and every time there was a rebound they were there for me."
But when someone asked him to address Alexander Ovechkin's comments from earlier in the series that Halak looked nervous because his hand shook while he drank some water, Halak snapped.
Well, he didn't really snap, but for the mild-mannered Halak it was about as close to an outburst as you're going to get.
"You know what? He can say what he wants," Halak said, referring to Ovechkin. "If you squeeze the bottle, your hand's going to shake. That's what I think. I don't think I was nervous. It was the same thing tonight, and I was squeezing the bottle the same way."
If anyone else said something like that, it would be brushed off completely. For Halak, that's downright cocky.
And he had a right to be, because he single-handedly won this game, no matter what he says.
Someone else who would have a right to be cocky, if he was capable of such a thing, is Canadiens coach Jacques Martin.
For the first time in the series, he made some major adjustments, both prior to the game and during. They all paid off.
First, he went back to Halak after giving Carey Price the net in Game 4. Price wasn't horrible in that loss, but he wasn't great either.
Halak was great and more in Game 5, so score one for the coach.
"I had confidence Jaro would bounce back with a strong performance," Martin said.
Another move was to remove Benoit Pouliot from the top two lines and place Travis Moen to the left of Scott Gomez and Brian Gionta. The result? Moen got the game-winner on a clever backhand inside the far post that caught Semyon Varlamov going the wrong way.
"I was just trying to keep it simple and get them the puck," said Moen, who played easily his best game of the series. "They're so good with the puck and at finding guys. We had lots of chances. We played offensively, but we took care of our end as well."
Meanwhile, once the Canadiens entered the third period with a lead for the second time in the series, Martin chose the players he sent out to defend that lead very wisely.
Pouliot got three shifts, his lack of intensity ont he defensive end bothering the coach for quite some time. Roman Hamrlik got two shifts because he simply looks burnt out on the ice, his 36-year-old legs not striding as hard or fast as they used to. Sergei Kostitsyn got one shift, and even that may have been one too many after he simply stared at a loose puck instead of retrieving it just prior to the Capitals' scoring their lone goal. Glen Metropolit also got only one, while Marc-Andre Bergeron watched the entire third period from the bench.
Ryan O'Byrne, playing only his second game of the series, got 12 shifts and 7:07 of ice time in the third, often against Ovechkin. He snuffed out many of Ovechkin's attacks before they had a chance to be dangerous.
Martin has been much-maligned in this series for some of his oversights, but he should get credit for adjusting mid-game like that. Except none of those adjustments would have been worth anything were it not for Halak.
Now the question is how will he, and the young Capitals, react in Game 6?
After losing 2-1 on Friday night to the plucky Montreal Canadiens and their stellar netminder Jaroslav Halak, Boudreau got his answer.
And he didn't like it.
"We're not getting 20 guys playing, we're getting 13 and 14 guys every night," a visibly annoyed Boudreau said after the game. "Rather than everybody coming to play, tonight we had five or six passengers again."
But perhaps Boudreau was being a little harsh on his young club, because if it weren't for Halak's heroics he'd be talking about getting ready for the second round of the playoffs. Still, he felt his best players made Halak's life a little too easy.
"He played very good, there's no doubt," Boudreau said. "But we missed some really good looks. When you have players who are really good scorers and they miss really good looks, it's like a checker not doing his job. They've got to score those goals."
The Capitals came at Halak from all sides and in every which way in this game, but he was up to the challenge.
Afterwards, he was his usual humble self, giving praise to his teammates in spite of the fact they allowed the Caps to fire 38 shots on goal.
"I still think the guys did a great job," Halak said. "Even though they had 38 shots the guys blocked a lot of shots, and every time there was a rebound they were there for me."
But when someone asked him to address Alexander Ovechkin's comments from earlier in the series that Halak looked nervous because his hand shook while he drank some water, Halak snapped.
Well, he didn't really snap, but for the mild-mannered Halak it was about as close to an outburst as you're going to get.
"You know what? He can say what he wants," Halak said, referring to Ovechkin. "If you squeeze the bottle, your hand's going to shake. That's what I think. I don't think I was nervous. It was the same thing tonight, and I was squeezing the bottle the same way."
If anyone else said something like that, it would be brushed off completely. For Halak, that's downright cocky.
And he had a right to be, because he single-handedly won this game, no matter what he says.
Someone else who would have a right to be cocky, if he was capable of such a thing, is Canadiens coach Jacques Martin.
For the first time in the series, he made some major adjustments, both prior to the game and during. They all paid off.
First, he went back to Halak after giving Carey Price the net in Game 4. Price wasn't horrible in that loss, but he wasn't great either.
Halak was great and more in Game 5, so score one for the coach.
"I had confidence Jaro would bounce back with a strong performance," Martin said.
Another move was to remove Benoit Pouliot from the top two lines and place Travis Moen to the left of Scott Gomez and Brian Gionta. The result? Moen got the game-winner on a clever backhand inside the far post that caught Semyon Varlamov going the wrong way.
"I was just trying to keep it simple and get them the puck," said Moen, who played easily his best game of the series. "They're so good with the puck and at finding guys. We had lots of chances. We played offensively, but we took care of our end as well."
Meanwhile, once the Canadiens entered the third period with a lead for the second time in the series, Martin chose the players he sent out to defend that lead very wisely.
Pouliot got three shifts, his lack of intensity ont he defensive end bothering the coach for quite some time. Roman Hamrlik got two shifts because he simply looks burnt out on the ice, his 36-year-old legs not striding as hard or fast as they used to. Sergei Kostitsyn got one shift, and even that may have been one too many after he simply stared at a loose puck instead of retrieving it just prior to the Capitals' scoring their lone goal. Glen Metropolit also got only one, while Marc-Andre Bergeron watched the entire third period from the bench.
Ryan O'Byrne, playing only his second game of the series, got 12 shifts and 7:07 of ice time in the third, often against Ovechkin. He snuffed out many of Ovechkin's attacks before they had a chance to be dangerous.
Martin has been much-maligned in this series for some of his oversights, but he should get credit for adjusting mid-game like that. Except none of those adjustments would have been worth anything were it not for Halak.
Now the question is how will he, and the young Capitals, react in Game 6?
