But the reasons that the Bruins are not playing in the Eastern Conference finals are the same reasons that the Canadiens are. The Habs were finally able to solve Flyers goalie Michael Leighton and the vaunted Philadelphia defense, handing them, in the words of Flyers captain Mike Richards, "an old-fashioned [butt]-kicking" in a 5-1 win, which cut the Flyers’ series lead to 2-1.
Instead of trying to constantly adapt to the minimal space in front and up the middle that Chris Pronger and the Flyers defense allow, the Habs decided to just play their game — and that is speed and tenacity.
"We came up on them, we entered the zone a lot better, our forecheck was good," said Canadiens winger and former Boston College star Brian Gionta. "When all that’s going, it’s a lot easier to get traffic to the net.
"That was huge, because I think at times this year, we’ve gotten ourselves a lead and then sat back and gotten ourselves into big trouble. I think we did a good job of keeping it up. Even when we had a three-goal lead late in the game and [the Flyers] got a goal, we kept pushing and we didn’t let up."
While being the first to light the lamp was a huge relief for a Habs squad that had been shut out 9-0 through the first two games of this series, it wasn’t everything. The goal, as Habs forward Mike Cammalleri pointed out, was a product of the Canadiens playing their game and not letting the Flyers dictate the tempo and flow.
"I think that — don’t get me wrong, it felt good and we needed to score to win — but I think that the result really drives the talk," said Cammalleri, who scored the Habs' first goal of the series and now leads the NHL with 13 goals in the playoffs. "For everyone in this room, it’s a big deal to watch and it’s something to really talk about, but for us, we liked the way we played and we thought it was going to come.
"It’s a big goal for us, don’t get me wrong, but so much is made of the result, and it ends up determining how you guys are going to analyze the game. But for us, it’s more important how we’re playing than scoring the goal."
Zdeno Chara can sympathize. Following his team’s own 4-0 shellacking at the hands of the Flyers in Game 5, and after a devastating 4-3 loss in Game 7, the Bruins captain admitted that his teammates were nervous under the pressure of closing a series.
While the Habs were in a different spot, they still didn’t let pressure from the fans or the media — or, more importantly, from the Flyers' performances in Games 1 and 2 — dictate how they approached Game 3.
"We really came out and took it to them, playing our own game instead of trying to play theirs or adapt to their game," said former Harvard star and Canadiens forward Domenic Moore. "We used our speed and our forecheck, our strongest weapons, and played to our strengths."
If the Bruins had done that in just one of their final four games against the Flyers, they may still be playing.
Good things happen when you just worry about your own game and execute your game plan. It may be hard for the Bruins and their fans to watch the hated Habs and Flyers battle it out for the right to play in the Stanley Cup finals, but in Game 3 of this series, the Habs laid a blue print for getting around the Flyers' big defensemen and beating Michael Leighton. They did that by refusing to let the Flyers change how they play.
The Canadiens reverted back to the style of play that got them to this point, and if they continue to play that game, they may do something the Bruins and the Devils before them couldn’t do — and that’s beat the Flyers in a playoff series.
