Carey Price and the Canadiens Win Game 7 and Head to Winnipeg

Carey Price and the Montréal Canadiens completed their epic comeback on Monday night in Toronto, and while much of the talk has rightfully been of the Maple Leafs collapse, there is a short turnaround for the Habs, who will be skating in game one tomorrow night in Winnipeg against a well-rested Jets team that completed their first round over a week ago. On the heels of their game seven win, I'll break down what it means for the them and what to expect in round two for the oldest club in the National Hockey League.

How We Got Here

To dismiss the Habs' first round win over the Leafs as a classic choke-job would be unfair to the resilience showcased by a desperate team over the past week. In a series that began what feels like eons ago, game one, although it was a Canadiens victory and vintage Carey Price performance, was trumped by the storyline of John Tavares' scary injury. A great team performance was chalked up to a Maple Leafs coma that was induced by the trauma of witnessing a brother and a captain suffer a horrific freak accident that resulted in him being stretchered off the ice. Then, as expected, the Leafs regrouped and took over the series with wins in three consecutive contests, outscoring the Habs by a total score of 11-2.

In game five at home, the Leafs had a chance to conquer their demons and advance to the second round for the first time in 17 long years. Things looked good for the guys in blue after scoring three goals to tie the game until a cataclysmic turnover by former Canadiens draft pick, Alex Galchenyuk, gave Montréal young guns Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki a 2-on-0 from their own blue line just a minute into overtime. After a couple of passes, Suzuki deposited the rubber past a helpless Jack Campbell to send the series back to Bell Centre for a sixth game.

For the first time all season, fans were allowed in the building for a game played in Canada. The 2,500 in attendance cheered their team to a dominating performance for much of the game, but the Habs could only muster a two goal lead thanks to the heroics of Jack Campbell in the Leafs net. Again the Maple Leafs manufactured a comeback with two late goals, and again they came up just short when Jesperi Kotkaniemi's wrister deflected off of Zach Bogosian and found it's way to twine.

Unable to come up with the knockout punch in game six or seven, the Leafs had one last chance to advance and to avoid an eighth consecutive loss in a game where they have a chance to eliminate an opponent, dating all the way back to 2013. Fortunately for the Habs, those demons were not exorcised. Carey Price put on a vintage performance, stifling Toronto, while veterans Brendan Gallagher and Corey Perry found the back of the net en route to a 3-1 game seven victory.

Job Security

The significance of a first round victory over their eternal rivals carries a ton of weight for some key individuals in the organization. For starters, general manager Marc Bergevin has bought himself another day at the helm. Speculation surrounding his position will have to wait at least another year as he continues in his quest to build a Stanley Cup winning roster. Bergevin is now in his ninth year with the Habs and is making his first appearance in the second round since 2015, so patience is surely running thin, but I would be shocked if he is not afforded the opportunity to build around youngsters Nick Suzuki, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, and Cole Caufield for the next couple of seasons.

The only person facing more pressure than Bergevin on the organizational side of things is interim head coach Dominique Ducharme, who took over after Claude Julien was fired in February. Ducharme and the Habs really struggled down the stretch of the regular season but were able to secure the final playoff spot in the North almost by default, as the Calgary Flames became allergic to winning and the Vancouver Canucks were dealt an impossible hand with their COVID-19 situation.

Just a week ago Ducharme was on the hot seat with his team looking at elimination in game five, especially following the curious decision to leave out the aforementioned Kotkaniemi and Caufield from the lineup to start the series, but after getting such impressive performances out of his guys when it matters most, it looks more and more like Ducharme will be returning next season without the interim tag. His game plan and foresight to bring in Jake Evans and leave out a struggling Tomas Tatar in an effort to ultimately shut down the Leafs dynamic top line was brave and worked to perfection, and thanks to his efforts, he and his team will live to fight another day.

Carey Price Earning His Paycheck

Beyond the coaching and managerial staff, the team's perseverance adds an important wrinkle to the legacy of Carey Price, who has shown that his killer instinct and ability to perform in the biggest of moments has not waned. During recent seasons doubters have called Price's game into question, but he always seems to rise to the occasion. Over the series, Price got better and better, out-dueling Campbell on the other end of the rink who was also playing an excellent game and giving his team a chance each night.

At age 33, Price is running low on chances left to win the Stanley Cup, which is the missing piece in his impressive trophy case that already features an Olympic gold medal, World Cup of Hockey gold medal, a Vezina Trophy, Hart Trophy, Ted Lindsay Award, and William Jennings Trophy. Another interesting fact that will continue to be brought up is that teams who have players with a cap hit of over $10 million do not succeed in the playoffs. In fact, Price is the only player in the NHL who carries a cap hit over that $10 million mark in 2021 who will be participating in the second round. The big criticism of players who earn that much money is that they oftentimes come up short in the postseason. We need not look far to see two examples in Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews, who are paid the big bucks to carry the team to victory, but have shown an inability to do so in the past. Had Price and the team come up short in this series, he would be another name on the list and sentence himself to an offseason full of criticism. His ability to battle and keep the Habs alive through game five, six, and seven, however, turns him back into a hero in Montréal. Say what you will about his regular season play, Price is earning his paycheck by leading his team to wins at the most important time of year, and has reminded us all of what he is capable of.

Next Up: Winnipeg

As mentioned in the opening, Winnipeg has not played a game since they eliminated Connor McDavid and the Oilers on Monday, May 24th. Furthermore, with Canadiens being the fourth seed in the North, the Jets will have the luxury of having home-ice advantage during the series. This matchup is very evenly matched because of the way that these two rosters are structured, but let's compare the forward, defensive, and goaltending battles.

Up front, the Jets offensive weapons appear to be more dynamic and skilled. They have a great one, two punch at the center position with Mark Schiefele and Pierre-Luc Dubois, and also sport an excellent group of hard-nosed and scoring wingers in the form of Kyle Connor, Blake Wheeler, and Nikolaj Ehlers. Not only are the Jets forwards scarier on paper, they have experience to go with it. Don't forget that this is a team who played in the Western Conference Final just three seasons ago and has the same core group of players. For the Canadiens, the forward talent is a mixed bag of young guns, prime age scorers, and cagey veterans. While they are the less likely of these two teams to put up high numbers, I do like their makeup. They have the veterans to steer the ship with Corey Perry and Eric Staal, the scorers on the wings with Josh Anderson and Tyler Toffoli, the grinders like Brendan Gallagher and Paul Byron, and the young players like aforementioned Suzuki, Kotkaniemi, and Caufield. I was impressed with the Habs ability to matchup with the talented Leafs forward group and outplay them for a majority of the series. I give the Jets a slight edge because of the Habs inexperience at center, the most important skating position on the ice.

Defensively, the Jets are weaker than all of the other second round teams. Josh Morrissey is much better than most people give him credit for, but this group lacks a great supporting cast behind him. They are very large, with Logan Stanley measuring in at 6-foot-7 and Derek Forbort at 6-foot-4, and to their credit they did manage to keep Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl from taking over their series. The Canadiens are also large and mean. Shea Weber has looked better in the playoffs than he did for most of the regular season, but the defensive group as a whole contributed almost nothing offensively agains the Leafs. In seven games, they totaled two points. In their defense, their gameplan against Toronto was centered around keeping their top guns in check, which they executed well down the stretch. Similarly to the forward groups, the defensive units are fairly close, but I will take the Canadiens because they are more well-rounded and possess more experience than the Jets defensemen.

The most intriguing matchup to follow is in net. For my money, two of the top three remaining goaltenders in the Stanley Cup Playoffs are participating in this series. Connor Hellebuyck and Carey Price were primary reasons that their teams were able to shut down the top offenses of Edmonton and Toronto and advance to the second round. Neither goaltender has won a Stanley Cup, but both are former Vezina Trophy winners and have shown that they can take over a hockey game. It feels criminal to pick one over the other, but I will take Price. The fact that he has succeeded on bigger stages throughout his career like the Olympics and World Cup of Hockey, while Hellebuyck has not tasted as many pressure situations gives him the smallest of advantages. This battle will be so fun to watch.

My prediction for the series is the Canadiens to defeat the Jets in six games. In Colorado, we saw the Avalanche clobber the Golden Knights in a series coming off of the exact same scenario, where one team swept their first round opponent and the other went the distance. Based on that, I think the Jets might get off to a better start and claim game one, but the Canadiens will come back and ultimately defeat the Jets to win the North division.

Follow Peter on Twitter @MuffinHockey and check out his articles at the Stanford Daily Newspaper and The Hockey Writers.