Craig Anderson’s excellent play in goal was a big reason for the Senators’ success. (Francois Lacasse/Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

Peter Budaj, Michael Blunden, Jeff Halpern and Gabriel Dumont weren’t the players expected to lead the Montreal Canadiens to playoff glory.

So really, who can be surprised they didn’t?

Missing their starting goalie, their captain, one of their top forwards and a heart-and-soul winger, the half-staffed Canadiens were no match for the Ottawa Senators Thursday night. They bowed meekly, 6-1, in the decisive Game 5 of their first-round playoff series.

The Sens now await the results of the other quarter-final series, but likely will face the Pittsburgh Penguins, who took a 3-2 series lead after shutting out the New York Islanders tonight.

Some thoughts and observations on this elimination game:

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Peter Budaj to the rescue? The Canadiens’ season is now in their backup goalie’s hands. (Claus Andersen/Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

If the Canadiens are going to stage a comeback in their series against the Ottawa Senators, they’ll have to do it without No. 1 goalie.

In lousy news for Montreal’s fans and ticket scalpers alike, the team announced this morning that Price is out for the duration of the first round.

Although there were no further details, it appeared that he suffered a lower body injury while making the final save of regulation in Tuesday’s Game 4 loss. Peter Budaj, who came in and allowed the winning goal to Kyle Turris in overtime, will step between the pipes in tonight’s must-win contest. The Habs trail the series 3-1, and will also be playing without captain Brian Gionta (torn bicep) and forwards Brandon Prust (upper body), Ryan White (upper body) and Lars Eller (concussion).

GAME 4: Recap | Boxscore | Highlights | Complete postseason schedule

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Kyle Turris (left) celebrated after scoring the winning goal for Ottawa in overtime. (Jay Kopinski/Icon SMI)

By Allan Muir

It was in the bag. The Montreal Canadiens, still smarting from their Game 3 humiliation, built up a 2-0 lead on the Ottawa Senators. They played with urgency and passion, never giving the home team a chance to build any momentum from Sunday night’s thumping. Through 40 minutes, Montreal looked like a team ready to regain control of this series.

And then it all fell apart.

Mika Zibanejad cut the lead to one when the NHL war room ruled he hadn’t kicked the puck behind Carey Price, despite what seemed like compelling video evidence. Then, with Craig Anderson pulled for the extra attacker, Cory Conacher joined a mad scramble in the Montreal crease, where he somehow managed to poke the puck in with just 23 seconds remaining.

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After proving he’s a bona fide workhorse No. 1, Ryan Suter will be tough to beat. (Dustin Bradford/Getty Images)

By Allan Muir

This morning, the NHL announced the three finalists for this year’s Norris Trophy, given annually to “the defense player who demonstrates throughout the season the greatest all-around ability in the position,” as chosen by the Professional Hockey Writers Association. And not one of them was named Lidstrom, Chara or Weber.

In fact, all three of this year’s nominees — Pittsburgh’s Kris Letang, Montreal’s P.K. Subban and Minnesota’s Ryan Suter — are first-timers. A signal of a changing of the guard among the league’s elite blueliners? That’s never a bad thing. All three deserve the recognition.

So, who’s going to win it?

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By John Rolfe

SI.com’s Bryan Armen Graham presented 12 things that were true in May 2004, when the Toronto Maple Leafs made their last postseason appearance until May 1, 2013 in Boston. Let us now revisit the world as it was in May 1993, the year that the Montreal Canadiens became the last Canada-based NHL team to lift Lord Stanley’s chalice. Here are 12 truths from that storied time:

1. Gary Bettman was the NHL’s new commissioner

He’d been in office for two months and had yet to be booed while presenting the Cup. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Here’s more on the league’s landscape and the rest of the world for that entire year:

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Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored a hat trick after appearing in just nine regular season games. (Jay Kopinski/Icon SMI)

By Allan Muir

Heading into their playoff meeting, the Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens didn’t have any obvious rivalry with each other. Three games later, that’s no longer the case. The ill will that was built upon the Lars Eller hit and the ensuing war of words through the first two contests was amped up to a new level after Ottawa humiliated the Habs 6-1 in a fractious, fight-filled Game 3. Jean-Gabriel Pageau, a rookie who played in just nine regular season games, led the Sens with three goals and Craig Anderson recorded 34 saves in the win. Ottawa now leads the series 2-1.

Here are a few observations from the contest:

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The physical play of the Canadiens’ Ryan White (right) impacted Montreal’s win. (Minas Panagiotakis/Icon SMI)

By Brian Cazeneuve

With emotions running high after the devastating Game 1 hit by Ottawa’s Eric Gryba that drew a suspension for putting Montreal forward Lars Eller in the hospital, the Canadiens responded verbally and on the ice.

Here are some key moments and observations from tonight’s contentious Game 2, which the Habs won 3-1 to even the series at 1-1:

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By Allan Muir

Pretty much everyone who saw Lars Eller lying face down in a pool of his own blood on Thursday night was horrified by the results of Eric Gryba’s devastating open ice hit. But there weren’t many, outside of Montreal loyalists who looked at that collision and thought it was the sort of play that needed to be eliminated from the NHL.

Apparently that number swelled by at least one today as the Ottawa defender was handed a two-game suspension by Brendan Shanahan for what he called an “illegal check to the head of Eller.”

No doubt this was a tough call for the NHL’s chief disciplinarian. Arguably the toughest he’d faced all season. Despite the injury suffered by Eller, there was no black or white in this incident. Watch the replay a dozen times and you won’t see incontrovertible proof of Eller’s head being the primary point of contact – -or of an innocent hit gone awry — unless that’s exactly what you’re looking to see.

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Coach Paul MacLean’s honesty about the devastating hit on Lars Eller didn’t sit well with the Canadiens. (Icon SMI)

By Allan Muir

If you thought the Montreal Canadiens might let bygones be bygones a day after watching bloodied teammate Lars Eller wheeled off the ice in Game 1, you’re about to have your faith in humanity shaken.

The Habs didn’t like Eric Gryba’s hit that sent Eller to the hospital. And they didn’t like the postgame thoughts offered up by Ottawa Senators coach Paul MacLean any better.

MacLean aroused Montreal winger Brandon Prust’s ire by suggesting that Raphael Diaz, the Habs defenseman whose suicide pass left Eller open to the hit, was to blame for the play, not Gryba.

“[If I’m Eller], I’m really mad at [Diaz], whoever he is, because he passed me the puck in the middle of the rink when I wasn’t looking,” said MacLean. “That’s always been a dangerous place as far as I know. Ever since I’ve been playing this game, that’s a dangerous place to be — bad things happen.

“I think it’s a hockey play that ended up going badly for Lars Eller.”

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Ottawa’s Craig Anderson had 48 saves in the Senators’ win over Montreal. (Minas Panagiotakis/Icon SMI)

By Brian Cazeneuve

The Ottawa Senators came out strong in Game 1 of their playoff series against the Canadiens, getting a 4-2 win in Montreal to take a 1-0 series lead. Here’s a breakdown of some major moments from the opening game.

• Ottawa’s Erik Karlsson made a fabulous play to slice through the Montreal defense and produce the first goal of the game. Last season’s Norris Trophy winner always looks like he’s just gliding along, not really pushing the play up the ice as fast as he is. It doesn’t matter how many times opponents have seen it or how many of them know it’s coming; everybody seems to underestimate Karlsson’s speed. By the time he had shifted his stride from his own end of the ice and into the neutral zone, it was already too late for the chasing Canadiens to close the gap on him. Karlsson split the space between Brian Gionta and Tomas Plekanec and then skipped the puck to Kyle Turris on his left side – it looked more like a lost puck than a pass, but who’s counting – and then took a return feed from Turris and tipped it behind Carey Price. How many times this season and last has Karlsson split forecheckers and defenses who misjudge his speed?

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