Canadiens playing well as playoffs approach

By Bud L. Ellis

March is the time every team in the National Hockey League wants to get hot. The Montreal Canadiens are heating up along with the weather.

It’s nothing new for a franchise that shocked the Stanley Cup playoffs last season by winning two Game 7s on the road against powerhouses Washington and Pittsburgh … as the eighth and final seed from the Eastern Conference.

Montreal’s not kicking around the bottom of the playoff pool this spring, thanks in big part to a March during which the Canadiens have won seven of 10 games. The surge has brought Montreal within one scant point of the Boston Bruins in the Northeast Division. Sitting sixth in the conference standings with 86 points, sliding ahead of Boston and winning the division would be huge for Montreal.

If the playoffs started today, the Bruins and Canadiens would face off, but Boston would have the home-ice advantage. That shouldn’t faze Montreal if that scenario plays out this spring, considering the Canadiens’ shocking run to the Eastern Conference finals last spring as the eighth seed.

Montreal opened March with four victories in a row and are one of just four Eastern Conference teams with 40 victories. The Canadiens can take a big step toward winning the Northeast on Thursday when Montreal plays at Boston. Washington, second in the East, comes to Montreal on Saturday.

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Tuesday, March 22, 2011 at 7:28 pm by bud

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