By Rob Ficiur

To the surprise of the hockey world the Montreal Canadiens are in the NHL semi finals.  How can a team that made the playoffs on the last weekend of the season defeat the top team in the regular season (Washington Capitals) and the defending Stanley Cup champions (Pittsburgh Penguins)?  What can the other five Canadian teams learn from the Habs?
1.  Play the Coach’s System -   On paper, Montreal has less talent than Calgary, Vancouver and Ottawa.   Repeatedly the Calgary Flames were criticized by the fans, media and coaching for not playing the coach’s system.  The Canadiens beat teams with more talent because they played within a structure that allowed them to win.  In November the Calgary Flames were the best team in the NHL.  Once they got thinking they were pretty good the players went away from the coaches’ system; which lead to their early playoff exit….no wait!  The Flames missed the playoffs because the players wanted to play their way.
Through two rounds of the playoffs the Montreal Canadiens lead the NHL with 320 blocked shots.  The Penguins, who they just beat, were fifth of playoff teams with 181 blocked shots.  Blocked shots eliminate scoring chances.  Blocked shots show that a team has the desire to win at all costs.
2.  Draft Day – A team that drafts well wins.  The sun will rise in the east tomorrow.  We have known both facts for as years.  On the flamesnation.ca website – an ambitious fan took the current roster of NHL teams and determined which club originally drafted them. He then calculated the number of NHL career games played by the draft picks of each team.   If the Leafs drafted a player and traded him away, that players numbers were still counted as a Leafs draft pick.
The 30 NHL teams average 1,562 games played by their draft picks.  The top three drafting teams were Pittsburgh 2,330, San Jose 2,241 and Montreal 2,225.  The lowest four teams were Toronto and Tampa Bay both with 912, Calgary with 906 and Detroit with 792.   The trend was overwhelming that the higher ranked teams had more games played by their draft picks.  Calgary and Toronto, both at the bottom of the list, are good examples of dismal drafting.  Both teams have already traded away their top pick in 2010.   The Flames won’t draft until round #3 this year; Toronto has traded away their first round pick in 2011 as well.  Experienced fans know that the draft is an inexact science.  However, why do some teams consistently draft NHL players and other teams consistently draft prospects that didn’t make it?
It can take years to build a championship team.  Trading away draft picks for veterans so you can make a cup run this year rarely works.   Though the Oilers finished last in the league, they have an impressive crop of prospects; which Edmonton fans hope will pay off in a few years.
3.  Goaltending – Without a doubt Montreal goalie Jaroslav Halak is the reason the Canadiens won the first two rounds of the playoffs.  He leads the playoffs with .933 save percentage.  When he made unbelievable saves against Washington, we doubted he could do it again versus Pittsburgh.  Now the question is can he do it for two more rounds?
Montreal didn’t win just because they have a hot goalie.  Canadiens back up goalie Carey Price has played in three games putting in over 104 minutes of play.  When Halak’s play was weak in the Washington series, the Canadiens turned to Price.  When Halak got his chance to start again he made the most of it.
Whether it be injury or poor play a team needs two goalies that can carry the team.   Human nature being what it is; if a goalie gets complacent, he is not as sharp.  A solid backup pushes the starter to be a better player.  The Stanley Cup tournament is a two month marathon.
There is no perfect formula which will guarantee a championship.  However, as the Montreal Canadiens play on, 26 other teams have to decide how they can fine tune their team so they can still be playing hockey a year form now in the 2011 semi finals.