Before the series began, I based my prediction of a Canadiens win in seven games on the fact that I liked the character in their room better than the character in the Bruins room.
Five games later, I have to admit the character in the Bruins room has surprised me.
With the pressure they were under to have a long playoff run, with the memories of last spring's epic collapse being re-hashed when they fell behind 2-0, it would have been easy for the Bruins to fold.
That kind of pressure has crushed teams before, and the fact it didn't crush this Bruins squad is a testament to how much they must have learned last spring.
But it also provided a window into how the Canadiens are able to handle the position of the favourites, one they had never really been in before, and one in which they've essentially failed up until now.
With three straight losses, there's no other way to look at it, even if each of those losses were about as close as they come.
Discourse is familiar
Listening to the Canadiens talk after Monday's practice, it was hard not to think back to the words of the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins in last year's playoffs. Each of them insisted, right to the bitter end, that if they continued doing what they were doing they would prevail.
In a nutshell, that's basically what the Canadiens were saying Monday, even though there was an admission of adjustments that needed to come.
"When you lose two overtime games in a row, there's not a whole lot you can change," Scott Gomez said. "We've got guys who have gone through it. If anything, everyone's excited. Playing Game 6 against the Bruins at home, what more could you ask for?"
And Mathieu Darche: "We always talk about the process, and the process is there. We're getting scoring chances, we gave up a lot of goals in Game 4 but aside from that they haven't scored too many. We're playing well. They had two of their skaters make saves on us (Saturday). We're right there, now's not the time to change everything."
And Jacques Martin: "We've had a lot of moments of adversity this season. Our group has a lot of character, a lot of leadership. We have to focus on the way we need to play, not so much on the result as the process…The goals for and goals against are 12-12, it's been an evenly matched series. You just have to be prepared to go at it. We've brought the adjustments that we wanted to and we'll go into the game with our game plan."
And finally Lars Eller, who was perhaps the most blunt of the bunch: "I think that we're the better team, and we know that. I think we have the chances and we've carried the play over the last two games, we gave ourselves chances to win and it's been such small things that have gone against us. We know we can do it."
Leaders must be leaders
It's not totally outrageous for the Canadiens to be feeling so comfortable in their own skin down 3-2, essentially having lost three straight one-goal games, discounting the empty-netter in Game 3.
I remember a coach telling me once that a one-goal loss means you're two goals away from winning, which isn't really true in the case of the overtime losses, but the sentiment should apply here.
The Canadiens need to understand that as well as they've been playing, it hasn't been good enough.
In essence, the time has come for the leaders on this team to lead.
And we all know who I'm referring to.
Both Brian Gionta and Gomez were in the Canadiens room after practice Monday morning to face reporters and talk about how the team is confident in its ability to win, how they need to use the home crowd to their advantage, how they don't want to go home, how their goal is to get back to Boston for a seventh game.
That's great, but these two need to show it on the ice as well.
"Being an older guy, yeah, that's what's expected of you," Gomez said. "The young guys are going to look up to you, look for you to lead."
Gionta raised a good point in his line's defence, saying that aside from Game 4, they haven't been so bad defensively. And he's right, because other than the four even strength Bruins goals both Gomez and Gionta were on the ice for in that game, they've only allowed one more goal in the other four games combined.
But his other defence, the one where his line "has created a lot of chances," that one no longer holds any water.
It's fine looking at scoring chances as a measure of your play in the regular season, but in the playoffs it's only results that count. It's just a cold reality.
Another one who will be looked at to raise his game is Jaroslav Spacek, who might be forced into increased minutes if James Wisniewski is unable to go in Game 6. I thought his play was much improved in Wisniewski's temporary absence in Game 5, and that will need to continue if Montreal hopes to travel to Boston after Tuesday's game.
All the team's veterans, the ones that pulled together to win five straight elimination games last spring, will need to do the same and come out with their best efforts.
But with the very real possibility of David Desharnais missing the game, a certain degree of pressure will likely also fall on Eller's shoulders.
His line with Jeff Halpern and Mathieu Darche was outstanding in game 5, which is what allowed Martin to put Desharnais on a wing with Gomez and Gionta. At practice Monday, the fourth line was centered by Tom Pyatt, with Ryan White and Yannick Weber on his wings.
Playing at home, Martin might feel comfortable using that fourth line against Boston's fourth line, but in all likelihood his bench will get shortened to three lines a little quicker than normal.
In which case Eller's line will be facing a heavy load, which is a remarkable turn of events for a guy who was benched just two games ago.
"You're never happy when you get benched, you want to play in those crucial situations in the playoffs," Eller told me Monday. "In a game like that, you don't want to be sitting and watching. That's always hard. So you want to use it as a motivator in the next game and show that I should be playing again. I know I can do those things, and that's why you want to be out there even more because you know you can make a difference. It feels good to be able to help the team in the next game. A little bit, at least."
Habs character needs to come forward
Going back to my pre-series prediction, the Bruins have proven they are mentally tougher than I gave them credit for. Power to them.
But they now face the challenge of finishing a series, something they failed to do on four straight occasions in the second round last year, though they did succeed on their second try in the first round against the Buffalo Sabres.
Meanwhile, the Canadiens are back in a situation where they excelled last spring.
The one problem with that is the temptation to use that past success as a crutch and simply rely on the positives they've shown thus far in the series to get them through.
They will need to do more than that, and it will have to come from the veteran leaders I felt gave the Canadiens the edge in this series to begin with.
The time has come for those guys to prove me right.
Check out The Scrum with video from Monday's practice
Eric Engels over at The Engels Angle feels the Habs have no time for self-pity
