Halak's confidence not shaken
PHILADELPHIA — Jaroslav Halak hit the showers early in another playoff opener. If he rebounds the same way, the Montreal Canadiens will be just fine.
The star goalie was pulled from a 6-0 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers after allowing four goals on 14 shots in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals Sunday night.
That won't shatter his confidence, or worry his teammates and coaches for Game 2 in Philadelphia tonight. After all, it's nothing new.
Halak got yanked after giving up five goals in a 6-3 loss to Pittsburgh in Game 1 of the second round. He was dominant the rest of the series, and the eighth-seeded Canadiens eliminated the defending Stanley Cup champions in seven games.
"It wasn't one of his better games," Canadiens coach Jacques Martin said Monday. "I think he'll recognize that, and not just him. I think it goes with our hockey team. I think (Sunday) wasn't a good performance, and the result was there to show it. I've got lots of confidence, and his teammates have a lot of confidence in Jaro that he'll be able to bounce back."
Halak entered this series with the best save percentage (.933) in the playoffs. He was the main reason the Canadiens stunned Presidents' Trophy winners Washington and the reigning champion Penguins in the first two rounds to go deeper into the playoffs than they have since 1993, when they won the Stanley Cup a record 24th time.
Halak stopped 131 of the final 134 shots he faced against the Capitals in the opening round. After his early exit against the Penguins, Halak allowed just 12 goals in the last six games. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin each had one in the series.
"Every series is a different series, so right now we are facing a different team than we faced in the first round and second round," Halak said. "So every team plays different hockey, and we just need to make a little bit adjustment in our penalty killing and our system. I think if we do that we should be OK."
If there's any team that should know how tenuous a 1-0 series lead can be in the NHL playoffs it's the Chicago Blackhawks.The team that had to fight back after losing the opener to win the first two rounds finds itself in an unusual spot now, leading the Western Conference final 1-0 over the San Jose Sharks."It's a different situation than we've been in most of the time," forward Patrick Sharp said Monday. "I don't think it changes much. It's not going to make the series any easier being up 1-0. If anything, it will just get more difficult as we go on. It's a great opportunity to try to take both games in their building and that's what we'll try to do."The Blackhawks, in fact, had lost four straight series openers dating to last season before seizing the home-ice advantage by winning 2-1 in Game 1 at the Shark Tank on Sunday. They came back to win three of those series, only losing last year's conference final against Detroit.While the Game 1 victory might take some pressure off Chicago heading into Game 2 tonight, coach Joel Quenneville wants to see the same level of desperation his team had in winning the second game in the previous two series after losing the opener."I just think that we got to react like we shouldn't be satisfied, we haven't accomplished anything, and feel like we have to win that game," Quenneville said."For the most part we played pretty well," Sharks defenseman Dan Boyle said. "We made a few defensive mistakes. But again, to get 45 shots against a team like that, keep them at two goals. It could have gone either way."The Sharks outshot the Blackhawks 45-40, drew five power plays to none for Chicago and controlled the play for long stretches of the game.
