WASHINGTON – Michael Cammalleri says the Canadiens have to find the fine line between urgency and nerves as they face elimination tonight in Game 5 of their playoff series against the Washington Capitals (7 p.m., TSN, RDS, CJAD Radio-800).
“At this point, maybe you try to play with a loose, pressure-off approach, which we’ve tried to create all series,” Cammalleri said Thursday before the team’s departure for the U.S. capital.
“We really have nothing to lose,” Cammalleri added. “We have to have some looseness in our game, and I don’t mean as far as technically or giving them opportunities by playing a wide-open game, because they’re so dynamic.”
The Canadiens are trailing the best-of-seven Eastern
Conference quarterfinal series 3-1 and can take some hope in the fact that a) they have played well enough to have a chance to win three of the games, and b) while the Capitals have lost only seven home games this season, the Canadiens have inflicted two of those losses.
The Habs have issues on defence going into tonight’s game against the Caps. Veteran Jaroslav Spacek missed Game 4 because he was sick.
Spacek took a few turns on the ice in Brossard Thursday morning, but did not make the trip to Washington.
While head coach Jacques Martin is reluctant to single out players for criticism, he did admit Thursday that he would like to see more from Roman Hamrlik.
And then there’s Marc-André Bergeron. He’s a valuable part of the power play, but his defence leaves something to be desired. He has averaged 22:16 of ice time in this series– only Andrei Markov has played more – but he’s a team-low minus-8.
There have been suggestions the Canadiens should reach out to the farm for defenceman P.K. Subban, and Martin said it was a possibility, but that it would be a decision for general manager Pierre Gauthier. Martin noted one possible obstacle was that the Canadiens are allowed only one more call-up from the American Hockey League’s Hamilton Bulldogs. But with the possibility of only one more game in the Canadiens’ season, there doesn’t seem to be any reason to save that promotion.
Cammalleri said one of the keys tonight will be to get more traffic in front of Capitals goaltender Semyon Varlamov, but that’s easier said than done because it has been a recurring problem throughout the season.
When asked whether the failure to create traffic in front of the net was a size issue, Cammalleri noted that the one Canadien who can be counted on for a net presence is Brian Gionta, who is the smallest player on the team at 5-foot-7 and 173 pounds.
Another player who is active in front of the net is 5-foot-10, 196-pounder Glen Metropolit, who set up Gionta for a goal down low in Wednesday’s 6-3 loss.
In his two games since returning from a shoulder injury, Metropolit has an assist and five shots on net, despite playing only six minutes a game. He was the Canadiens’ leading scorer on the power play during the regular season with 10 goals, but has played only one shift on the power play in this series.
Martin said Metropolit scored most of his power-play goals early in the season, but he did have two in March.
Cammalleri said an important factor for the Canadiens tonight will be to put the earlier games behind them.
“I think it’s important to stay in the present,” he said. “We can’t think about what could have been and wherewe could have been. We have to think about where we are, and where we are is still alive.
“The nice thing about the formula for the playoffs,” he added, “is you get a day like this to relax and get your head right and your body right.”
phickey@ thegazette.canwest.com
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