The Ottawa Senators have eliminated the Montreal Canadiens four games to one in their playoff series. The Senators put the nail in the coffin with a 6-1 victory on Thursday night.

Injuries caught up to the Habs and they couldn’t come up with an answer for the size and dominant attack of the Senators. When Carey Price went down with an injury in Game Four and the club announced that he’d be missing the rest of the post-season, Peter Budaj was thrust into the spotlight. Couple that news with word that Brian Gionta, tears and all, was going to be missing the rest of the playoffs and a banged-up Habs squad had taken perhaps all it could bear. Ryan White and Brandon Prust were also among the injured in the series.

The matchup was harsh and physical, overflowing off the ice into various walrus-related verbal sparring matches. After Lars Eller was taken out by Eric Gryba, the tone was set. Things erupted in Game Three, with 236 penalty minutes in the 6-1 Ottawa victory.

Indeed it seemed that the more physical and nasty the series got, the more it favoured the Senators. In my own analysis of the series, I figured things belonged to the Habs if the series’ focus was on skill. But this set was not, with the Sens smartly dragging the Canadiens into the trenches. Despite being outshot through most of the series, Ottawa knew how to play tough hockey and got the job done.

When things weren’t being solved in the trenches, the battle went to the respective goaltenders. And in that area, Ottawa’s Craig Anderson was the clear winner. He stopped 33 out of 34 shots in Game Five, putting on a display that really was just another day at the office in the series. His counterpart made 23 saves in the loss.

After three games, Price was 15th among playoff goalies while Anderson was third. That didn’t change much as things rolled to their unceremonious close on Wednesday night, with Anderson handling being outshot in four out of five series games with poise and skill.

“We’re real excited in the room. We feel like we’ve accomplished a lot this year, and going forward here, we’ll keep climbing that hill,” Senators goaltender Craig Anderson said after the win. “We’ve got a lot to be proud of and we’re looking forward to the next challenge.”

“I don’t think we played our hockey [in the third game], from me out,” Price had said after Game Three. “I think [my play in the series] been fair. There’s obviously room for improvement. If we’re down in the series, I’m not doing enough. I want to play better.”

That room for improvement would be taken away from Price, of course, and his club wasn’t able to pick up the slack despite a strong sense of belief from their fanbase. The Habs’ crowd still showed their respect throughout the game and gave the team an ovation after the series-losing game. For them, it was an accomplishment. The Canadiens finished last in their conference just last season but managed to make it to second in the East in the lockout-shortened year. Late in the regular season, things seemed to level off and the Habs slumped. They never recovered.

Back in Ottawa, Sens fans are gearing up for what’s next. So is the team. ”We need some rest,” Anderson said. “It’ll be good for some of our guys to get away from the rink for a day or two and kind of regenerate and come back ready to go.”

The Montreal Canadiens will be without their captain for the remainder of the post-season. The team announced Wednesday that Brian Gionta has a torn left bicep muscle and will miss the rest of the playoffs.

He missed Game Two and Game Four of the Habs’ series against the Ottawa Senators already with an “upper body injury,” but he’ll now have to sit out a lot more.

“It happened in the second period of Game One,” Gionta said on Wednesday. “It’s the same thing I dealt with last year, it’s the same injury.  It’s one of those things, you can’t do anything about it. Unfortunately I just wasn’t able to be out there to help.”

“Our captain was crying in my arms when he learned he could not play anymore,” Canadiens coach Michel Therrien said. Um, okay.

Gionta is the latest name on the Habs to hit the sidelines. They’re also without Lars Eller, who at least resumed skating. And Brandon Prust and Ryan White will miss Game Five with “upper body injuries,” while goalie Carey Price is day-to-day with a “lower body injury.”

The timing couldn’t be worse. The Canadiens are down three games to one in the series and have been unable to find a serious answer to the problem of Senators goalie Craig Anderson.

That’s not for lack of trying, with Montreal having fired 50 shots at Anderson in Game One and winding up losing 4-2.

“Guys are going to realize when we’re coming out the gates and we’re flying that we’re the better team and there’s still life in this series for us,” said P.K. Subban. “But it takes the guys in this room to believe that…It’s a situation now where all the pressure’s on [the Senators]…They want to end this thing but they’ve got to beat us first, so good luck to them. We’ve been outshooting them every game. We’ve got good goaltending no matter who is in the net. So I wish them the best of luck.”

“The series isn’t over,” Gionta said. “We’ve got a lot of guys in this room that can still pull this off.”

The life-filled Game Five goes Thursday at the Bell Centre at 6:30 EST.

It’s the story that has consumed the media in the nation’s capital to the point of the Ottawa Sun slapping a tacky “First Blood Sens” headline on its front page. Eric Gryba’s hit on Montreal’s Lars Eller in Game One on Thursday drew more than a lot of blood on the ice, it drew out all the usual hockey arguments.

But now, the NHL has come down on Gryba and delivered a two game suspension regardless of what anyone else thinks.

“It’s tough seeing a guy laying in a heap with blood coming out,” said Canadiens centre Ryan White. “You never want to see that.”

You can see the hit here, but be warned that there is a considerable amount of blood even if the CBC’s cameras turn away in time. Those offended by things like Bruins fans picking their noses may want to avoid this clip as well – or maybe not.

Gryba received a five minute major penalty and a game misconduct on the play. The call was for interference and a hearing was scheduled for Friday to decide what eventually came down as the two game suspension.

“I stepped up to make a hit. I kept my shoulder down. He received the puck by the time I hit him,” Gryba said. “My elbow was down and there was no intent to hurt him whatsoever and I hope that he’s OK. I’m not out here to hurt anybody and it’s never good to seeing anything like that. I hope he makes a full and speedy recovery.”

“(If I’m Eller), I’m really mad at player 61, whoever he is, because he passed me the puck in the middle of the rink when I wasn’t looking,” said Senators head coach and moustache aficionado Paul MacLean. “That’s always been a dangerous place as far as I know. Ever since I’ve been playing this game, that’s a dangerous place to be — bad things happen. I think it’s a hockey play that ended up going badly for Lars Eller.”

“Yeah, he already showed enough disrespect over there. So we don’t really care about what that bug-eyed fat walrus has to say,” said Montreal’s Brandon Prust in response. Yes, he really said that.

As you can see from the clip, Gryba received what has been termed a “suicide pass” from “player 61″ Raphael Diaz.

Eller was taken to hospital with a concussion and facial and dental fractures. Ottawa and Montreal will renew their rivalry in a few hours for Game Two.

With the playoffs here and the matchups previewed, it’s time to dig in a little more. This time we’re looking at the Montreal Canadiens and the Ottawa Senators.

It’s something that we don’t see very often, but this all-Canadian matchup is finally upon us. The Canadiens enter the series with the Northeast Division title and actually sit second in the Eastern Conference. The Senators, meanwhile, dodged the bullet of the Pittsburgh Penguins and skated into seventh with a win in the last game of the regular season. Now, the Senators will hope that they’re up for the task of taking on the Canadiens. They’re getting the right players back in the fold at the right time and should be able to make it interesting.

Goaltending

For the Habs, it’s all about Carey Price. Unfortunately, he’s having a career low season in terms of save percentage and has fallen out of glory somewhat. There’s also the matter of his less-than-stellar playoff record, a bone of contention among Canadiens fans for some time now. He is 8-15 in the post-season thus far and will be angling to turn that around. The hope is for Price to pull on a little more of that magic that gave the Boston Bruins fits in 2011. Peter Budaj slips into the backup position well. He enjoyed a good year and can support where necessary, but this is Price’s show to win (or lose).

The Sens will have Craig Anderson back at just the right time. He missed nearly half the year, but when he was in goal he was playing like a boss. Prior to his injury, he led all goalies in GAA and save percentage. Anderson will be hoping to reclaim some of that past glory and he’s often the best player on a mediocre team. Memories of taking on the New York Rangers in last year’s opening round still ring loud in Ottawa, with Anderson proving his mettle in that outing. Even with the loss in seven games, the Senators’ netminder put on a performance to remember. Robin Lehner put up solid numbers in the regular season and will serve as backup.

Defencemen

The real Man of Steel appears to be Erik Karlsson. The offensive defenceman came back at just the right time and looks to be in stellar form again. He puts the puck in the net like no other blueliner in the NHL and he stabilizes the locker room for the Senators. If he’s scoring and playing offensively, the rest of the team can relax. He takes chances without taking risks. Sergei Gonchar will work to balance out the offensive attack from the rearguards, giving the Senators options on the man-advantage. And Chris Phillips, Matt Methot, Patrick Wiercioch, Eric Gryba, Andre Benoit and the returning Jared Cowen flesh out the rest. The Senators have got to hope they see more of this type of thing from Cowen.

As strong as Karlsson was for the Senators, the Canadiens actually had the most offensive D-group in the NHL this year. P.K. Subban and Andrei Markov put up solid numbers, especially on the power play, but injuries to key players like Rapahel Diaz seem to have dipped production somewhat. Losing Alexei Emelin didn’t help either, but the Habs will hope their balanced attack will bounce back. Josh Gorges and veteran Francis Bouillon also play important roles, while Davis Drewiske and Yannick Weber are among the options for a sixth man.

Forwards

The Habs can roll three lines with ease and can almost always hope for a goal. Michel Therrien has crafted pairs and rotates a third man through each set depending on the game situation, which gives him a fairly fluid line-up by contrast to other teams.  Tomas Plekanec and Brian Gionta have been paired together consistently, for instance, while David Desharnais and Max Pacioretty also make a good group. Michael Ryder, Brendan Gallagher, and Rene Bourque can jump in where necessary. There’s also the fourth line, which generally starts with Jeff Halpern and Brandon Prust and fleshes out with Travis Moen or perhaps Colby Armstrong. As you can see, there are options. What the Habs manage to make of those options is still up for grabs, but Therrien’s got to be hoping for some zip.

The Senators enter the playoffs as one of the lowest scoring teams in the league. Kyle Turris, Daniel Alfredsson and rookie Jakob Silfverberg were the only players to score double-digits in goals, while no forward eclipsed 20 helpers. Milan Michalek has been beset by injuries, but he’ll need to be better in the post-season. Cory Conacher is another good option to have and the Sens have to be hoping he’ll materialize at some point. If there’s anything to hope for up front, it’s that Ottawa can play the ground-and-pound game like nobody’s business. Zach Smith, Colin Greening and Chris Neil are among those who’ll dig in deep down low. And consider this: the Senators led the NHL in shots on goal this year.

In terms of top-end skill, the nod clearly goes to the Canadiens. Meeting the Senators in the trenches may create more trouble, but if they can keep their speed and puck movement up they’ll be okay. This series theoretically belongs to Montreal.

Ryan White has been suspended for five games for his hit on Philadelphia Flyers defenceman Kent Huskins. The Montreal Canadien now stands tied with Patrick Kaleta of the Buffalo Sabres with the longest suspension of this abbreviated season.

The incident took place on Monday and White received a game misconduct as well as fight major for his hit to the head of Huskins. You can see the hit here and check out another angle of it here.

After that, White accepted an invite to an in-person hearing at the NHL head office in New York on Wednesday morning. From there, the suspension was handed down.

“As White approached Huskins, his timing and his route were off,” said Brendan Shanahan in a video explanation. “Instead of making a legal, full body check, he recklessly picked Huskins’ head with his shoulder, making it the principal point of contact.”

Huskins went down with a concussion on the play and probably won’t return this season, which makes the impact of the hit even more dangerous. That factored into the decision to tag White with five games.

White clearly picks his angle to avoid a harder hit, but he also puts himself in the position to clip Huskins in the head. Whether or not contact with the head was intentional, it happened because of the way White aligned himself with the player. That can’t have helped his case.

Also a factor is the fact that Huskins didn’t alter his position, which puts the onus on White to deliver a proper body check. He didn’t, so more strikes were counted against him.

What we end up with is a classic example of targeting the head, something the league has been trying to crack down on over the last few seasons. They’ll need to send more messages like this, but they’ll need to be consistent across the board as well.

Michael Ryder is back in the fold in Montreal after the Canadiens traded Erik Cole to the Dallas Stars for the former Hab. The Canadiens also acquired a third round draft pick.

The Habs are currently sitting in first place in the Eastern Conference, so they’re obviously looking to pad things up a bit and help cement their position. The main thrust of the trade looks to be to aid the man-advantage, however.

“There’s never a good or bad time to make a trade,” said Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin about acquiring Ryder. “He’s a guy who is going to help our power play. He’s a sniper. He scores goals.”

The plan right now is for Ryder to be in the line-up when Montreal tangles with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday night.

Cole, meanwhile, waived his no-trade clause to get the deal done. He considered retirement in October and again after the settling of the NHL lockout. Currently he has two years left on a four year contract that pays him $4.5 million a year. Unfortunately for Montreal, Cole was off to a slow start with just six points in 19 games to start the shortened season.

“I want to make this clear: (Ryder) is a player who can help us right away,” said Bergevin. “He’s a player that produces. Nothing against Erik, but he will help us in areas we need.”

Ryder arrives in Montreal in the last season of a two year deal paying him $3.5 million a year. With the Habs having cleared out some significant money in terms of the Scott Gomez situation, Ryder will help the team fit under the cap.

“Erik Cole is a top-six power forward who skates well, adds size, and is under contract for the next two years,” said Stars GM Joe Nieuwendyk. “We thank Michael Ryder for his contributions and look forward to what Erik will bring to our group.”

In effect, the Canadiens are trading brawn for goal-scoring. They’re banking on Ryder’s ability to play as a sniper, something that they feel can help solidify their good start to the season and push them into the post-season with a few more goals on the scoreboard. But the 32-year-old also enters a hockey hotbed again, playing for a team that is under the microscope on a daily basis.

Blake Geoffrion is not retiring. The 25-year-old Plantation, Florida native stepped in front of the media on Wednesday ahead of Montreal’s game against the Boston Bruins to address the fallout from a serious injury he suffered when playing for the AHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs during the NHL lockout. Geoffrion was hit by J.P. Cote of the Syracuse Crunch and wound up having surgery that actually removed a piece of his skull and replaced it with titanium and mesh.

The diagnosis was a “depressed skull fracture” and his career was in jeopardy. His doctor said that he would make a full recovery, but Geoffrion’s history of concussions certainly seemed to cast a shadow over that possibility.

Yet Geoffrion, who just turned 25, insisted that he would be back to play for his NHL team in Montreal. “I know in my heart I’ll come back from this,” he said. “I’ll do whatever I have to do to come back to play the game. I miss the game dearly. I’ve watched every single game of the Canadiens.”

The press conference addressed rumours that Geoffrion was planning to retire in solid fashion and there’s little use doubting this kid’s resolve to play hockey for the Habs.

Drafted by the Nashville Predators in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, Geoffrion finished up his college career before starting with the team that drafted him. He signed a try-out contract with the Milwaukee Admirals to finish the 2009-2010 season, but only played in three games with the club before signing an entry level deal with the Predators. Geoffrion made his NHL debut in February of 2011. After a pair of partial seasons with the Preds, Geoffrion was traded to the Montreal Canadiens along with Robert Slaney in exchange for Hal Gill and a draft pick.

Geoffrion is the NHL’s first fourth generation hockey player. His great grandfather was Howie Morenz, his paternal grandfather was slapshot inventor Bernie “Boom Boom” Geoffrion and his father Dan played in the bigs for three seasons. There’s an awful lot of hockey in Blake’s blood, to say the least.

With that in mind, it’s awfully hard to think about hanging up the skates before his career has even had a change to properly begin. And Geoffrion, like all the other Geoffrions in the NHL before him, has no plans to go down without a fight.

He’ll be seeing doctors again on Thursday and has yet to discuss his symptoms after the hit. At the time, he had no idea how serious things really were. ”When I got hit I was like, ‘Aw, crap, I’m getting some stitches’ because I was bleeding pretty bad when I didn’t want to have to leave the ice that early in the game. Then when I got into the room they just wanted to make sure it wasn’t anything more serious. It ended up being so,” said Geoffrion.

There’s no doubt this kid faces some serious challenges in the next while, but there’s also no doubt that he’s going to fight like hell for his spot. We’ll be cheering every step of the way.

The Montreal Canadiens have inked defenceman P.K. Subban to a two-year contract worth $5.75 million.

Subban missed the first two games of this abbreviated season while he was negotiating his new contract as a restricted free agent. The new deal puts an end to the rumours around possible offer sheets and trades involving 23-year-old blueliner.

Back in August, the Habs and general manager Marc Bergevin tried to ink Subban to a two year deal worth $5.5 million. Obviously the new deal isn’t that far off from the summer offer, but word around the campfire is that Subban was holding out for more.

According to sources, Subban wanted a five-year contract with Montreal and was holding out until something more satisfactory came along.

Unfortunately for Subban (and fortunately for Montreal), the Canadiens have had a good start to the year and have gotten a lot out of their existing defensive group. Andrei Markov has been playing like a boss, so Subban’s position suddenly lacked leverage. How could he insist he was a must-have for the Habs?

It was widely known that Subban had no desire to leave Montreal, plus his position as a restricted free agent handcuffed him to whatever deal Bergevin was going to offer. He didn’t have much of a choice, unless he wanted to hold out longer and watch his value and reputation take a major hit.

So here we are. Subban will hit the ice for the Habs and Bergevin’s locked up a quality future with the potential to fiddle around with the deal somewhat this summer. He can operate from the $3.75 million Subban will make in the second year, which should be more than enough ground from which to sprout a longer-term deal.

“I’m extremely happy to be at this point now where the past is behind us and I can look forward to be integrated into the team and after their great start to the season,” Subban said. “With this process, I understand everybody will have their opinion, but my focus is getting on the ice and helping this team win. This is where my heart is, in Montreal.”

The Montreal Canadiens will be heading into this abbreviated season without one Scott Gomez. General manager Marc Bergevin has sent the forward home for the season and will allow his club to buy out Gomez’s contract in the summer, clearing out a whopping $7.3 million in cap space for next year.

This scenario is known as a “compliance buyout” and is designed to help the Habs get in line for the reduced $64.3 million salary cap next year.

“We all know the rules, and we all know that next year the cap’s going down,” Bergevin said on Sunday. “We had to judge what was best for us to give us the space to be able to comply by those rules.”

For now, the Gomez cap hit remains on the payroll to the tune of about a $6,457,143 for this year. Gomez will go on waivers and will not take up a roster spot if he clears.

This season, the Habs will be able to line up nicely under the $70.2 million cap hit. Next year, though, the newly lowered cap (under the new CBA, of course) will give them some problems. And if Gomez played this season and injured himself, he would be ineligible for the aforediscussed compliance buyout and would force Bergevin into figuring out the cap situation another way.

“We didn’t want to be handcuffed by this situation,” Bergevin said, “or even be forced to trade some productive players just to get under the cap.”

Gomez originally arrived on the Canadiens thanks to former GM Bob Gainey. The deal went down in June of 2009 and saw Gomez sent to the Habs along with Michael Busto and Tom Pyatt in exchange for Christopher Higgins, Doug Janik, Ryan McDonagh, and Pavel Valentenko.

Gomez has 108 points in 196 regular season games in Montreal. He only has 21 goals and is a minus-23 overall. “His cap hit is $7.3 million,” Bergevin said. “If he’s your number one centre, you’re OK with that. The decision we made was based on his production the last two seasons.”

“Unfortunately, the personal side of the game is really hard when the business side takes over,” said captain Brian Gionta. “We’ll do whatever we can to support him. He’s a great guy. He’ll bounce back from it. But the first few days I’m sure will be a shock for him.”

The Montreal Canadiens have signed goaltender Carey Price to a six year deal worth $39 million.

The deal not only gives the Habs a solid goalie, it means that Price was more than happy to subject himself to one of the harshest fanbases in the NHL when it comes to goalies. Perhaps only the Vancouver Canucks’ fans are harsher, but I digress…

Price will turn 25 in August, but he’s already a “veteran” with five years of NHL experience. He is, to say nothing else, optimistic about his future in Montreal.

“It kind of made sense to me,” Price said on a conference call. “It will take me to until I’m 30 years old and generally that’s about the peak of goaltenders, so I’m hoping by then to have a couple of Stanley Cups and have a good re-negotiation when I’m 30.”

“I think Carey brings what we need moving forward,” Montreal GM Marc Bergevin said. “He’s a top goalie in the league, a young goalie, and with having him in the net for the next six years I think it gives our team a chance to be competitive, and moving forward I think it was a key for us to have Carey in Montreal.”

Along with Price’s contract, Bergevin slapped in a trio of new entries to the Habs locker room: Brandon Prust, Francois Bouillon and Colby Armstrong.

“I just like these guys,” Bergevin said of the three. “They bring character, they bring sandpaper, they bring personality to our club which I feel was missing last year. From day one I wanted to build this team around character guys that put the team first, and that’s what I think we did.”

As for Price and his house, he will serve the Habs. ”It’s been a pretty interesting summer to watch, not only the changes that have been going on up top but also the players that we have signed recently,” he said.

Price played in 65 games last season and finished with a 26-28-11 record. The Canadiens were dead last in the Eastern Conference.