Canadiens Upset Capitals To Cap One Of The Most Improbable Comebacks In NHL Playoff History

Before last night's Montreal-Washington Game 7, since playoff expansion to the current format in 1994, no #8 seed had ever been down 3 games to 1 and ended up winning the series. Such a comeback had never happened.....now. History was made at the Verizon Center.



If you watched that whole video, you may have noticed the controversial waved off goal call at the start of the 3rd period. It appeared the Washington Capitals had tied it at 1 right at the start of the period, but the referees waved it off. The question on everybody's mind is, "was it the right call?" And the answer is frankly not a simple yes or no. Here is what the rule states.

69.3 Contact Inside the Goal Crease – If an attacking player initiates
contact with a goalkeeper, incidental or otherwise, while the
goalkeeper is in his goal crease, and a goal is scored, the goal will be
disallowed.

Halak was in the crease the whole time. Puck Daddy has the picture of contact starting between Knuble and Halak before the puck is in the net. Of course I bring that up because Bruce Boudreau seems to be claiming otherwise in an attempt to no doubt deflect the blame off him as his job could very well be in jeopardy. Anyways, back to the goal, if you are going exactly by the book, then Brad Watson made the right call. That goal should have been disallowed. However, the contact in that situation was no doubt ticky-tacky. It was not blatant and it was not Halak being pushed in the net with the puck like Varlamov would be later on in the game (that goal ended up being disallowed as well). Worse infractions have gone uncalled and goals have stood up with worse, more blatant, and more forceful contact being made. You could argue and you would have a point that in a Game 7, that is a kind of call you let stand. So while you have a case that the officials should have and could have let something like that go, you cannot make the argument that the officials in that situation made the absolute wrong call. By the books, the right call was made on the ice.

Enough addressing the controversy and more of being in awe at what happened. I am not sure if I could still wrap my head around what happened in this series. Going into this thing, if ever there was a slam dunk sweep or 5-game series win for the top-seed, this was the series. The Capitals were even on the verge of that. Yet, somewhere, thing got lost along the way as it all went wrong. The best regular season power play in the league was beyond abysmal, getting one PP goal all series long, and the team with the best regular season homework lost 3 times on home ice.

As for the Flyers, this means that we have a Winter Classic rematch (full schedule coming up in a bit) in the postseason. The 6-seeded Bruins have home-ice advantage. The #4 seeded Pittsburgh Penguins have home-ice throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs. All 3 divisional winners are gone. Wrap your head around those concepts. In a playoffs filled with odd statistical occurrences (all series tied 1-1, all East series went 3-1, all West series went 2-2), this one may be the oddest. Listed below are the 8 remaining teams with their original seed in the playoffs next to them. Get ready to have your mind blown.

#1 San Jose Sharks.
#2 Chicago Blackhawks
#3 Vancouver Canucks
#4 Pittsburgh Penguins
#5 Detroit Red Wings
#6 Boston Bruins
#7 Philadelphia Flyers
#8 Montreal Canadiens

How crazy fucked up is that? Of course, things still go by conference, so the Sharks are playing the Red Wings, and not the Canadiens, but damn, if that is not just bizarre.

I'll be the first to tell you that I hate the Canadiens, but you have to tip your hat to them for a stunning and unbelievable comeback, the likes of which the NHL has never seen before. Down 3 games to 1 after losing 2 straight at home, they rallied to win the last 3 games, 2 in Washington and 1 in Montreal, clinch the series, and eliminate the Habs. Simply stunning.