Jacques Martin, when evaluated from a critical standpoint, is not an entertaining man. The bar has been set so low that when asked whether his Montreal Canadiens would stay in a hotel to avoid the frenzy of their home city for Game 3 against Boston, the coach said, "Are you guys staying in a hotel?" and got laughs. When he wore jeans to a press briefing Sunday, it was considered a major change of pace. Martin can share insight, but often prefers boilerplate. He is, most of the time, deliberately bland.
And so, in a lot of ways, is his team. It is a big reason the Canadiens won two playoff rounds last season against Washington and Pittsburgh, and a big reason why they won the first two games of their first-round series with Boston going into Game 3. It was the triumph of admirably boring hockey, again.
"There's very few teams that are built for pure offence," says Montreal captain Brian Gionta, who scored both goals in Game 1. "It's just how the league is, and where it's at, and how hockey's played."
Gionta has played his entire life in defence-oriented systems; Boston College in university, then the New Jersey Devils and their suffocating trap, and now Jacques Martin's Montreal Canadiens. He probably couldn't play firewagon hockey if he tried. When asked, Gionta likens the Canadiens system to New Jersey's, which produced three Stanley Cups. But, like many a delirious Canadiens fan, he doesn't think this is a bad thing.
"It's pretty similar," Gionta says. "The Devils system got a pretty bad rap for sitting back, but it's just making sure you're responsible. You don't lose that third guy, you don't lose a pinching [defenceman], you try to limit the turnovers and the odd-man rushes. I'd say 90 to 95% of the systems are the same in the National Hockey League; it's just who executes them.
"That's why you see the parity across the league, too; it's hard to win games. Guys don't give up too much space, too many off-man rushes, too many breakaways. It's what the game is built on. You look at any goal that's scored in the NHL -it's a breakdown, it's a miscue, it's something. That's how goals are scored, on mistakes."
It can spread, too. The Washington Capitals scored a league-best 318 goals last season, and were then frozen out by Montreal in the first round of the playoffs. The result? Washington re-oriented its focus, scored 94 fewer goals (and allowed 36 fewer), and still accumulated the most points in the Eastern Conference. The formerly soft Capitals lead the NHL in blocked shots in the playoffs; they are doing it by playing like Montreal.
The Canadiens attack when it is prudent, they focus on body position and spacing, they block the dangerous shots and force easier ones, they get great goaltending, and they work. That's it.
"I remember last year, when I was down in the minors, our coaches telling us that it's not a mystery why the Habs were winning last year -they were leading the league in blocked shots," says 23-year-old centre Ryan White. "We know what we need to do to win, and we know where our strength lies, and it's our own zone."
No Canadiens player scored 30 goals this season. Their top point-getter was Tomas Plekanec, with 57. The only playoff team to score fewer goals in the regular season was Los Angeles. It is not a purely defensive system -P.K. Subban still has license to embark on his whirlygig adventures, now and then -and it is not one that is at its most effective over the grind of the regular season. But it's built for the playoffs.
"I wish we can play 82 games like that, but it's impossible," Montreal defenceman Roman Hamrlik says. "You work every inch on the ice, and that's why. You try to win battles, you compete out there. Little things, like who wants it more.
"[When I played for] Peter Laviolette with Islanders, he was a little bit more offence, push, [have] defencemen create. But here we have green light to go as a defence -when we play good defence we can enjoy the rush. But in the playoffs it's more about [playing] good defence and [creating] good offence."
If you noticed, the offensive freedom is a condition, not a right. More than anything, Martin is a prophet of order and discipline, of focus and calm. It's nothing new; it's just well-executed. The goal is for every shift to be shorter than 45 seconds, and in Game 1, several Canadiens went over the limit; Subban played a teamhigh 27: 07 with shift lengths of 56 seconds. In Game 2, the course was corrected. Subban still played 27: 06, but his shifts dropped to 43 seconds apiece. And every single player was under the limit.
To be sure, the blocked shots, the desire, the teamwork -it can all be magnificent, in its own way. The sacrifice of playoff hockey can be as admirable as any highlightreel goal. But is it fun? Not in the traditional sense, no. It's not as if Canadiens fans will complain, but what about the players?
"It's more fun [to play an offensive system], but still, you can say it's more fun to go offence, go offence, and you leave two-on-ones and stuff like that," Hamrlik says. "It doesn't work in the playoffs."
At least Hamrlik has had the chance. What about Gionta, who has spent his whole life being responsible, without a chance to be hockey's equivalent of a teenager? Does he ever dream of abandoning the system, of feeling the wind on his face, of playing free?
"You dream of winning," he says, with a smile. "That's what you dream of."
barthur@nationalpost.com
