Habs vs Senators : Heat turned up on rivalry between Canadiens and Senators

Source : Montrealgazette.com

There was not a provocative word spoken in the days leading to Game 1 of the Canadiens-Ottawa Senators Eastern Conference quarterfinal. Just a great, almost embarrassing deal of respectful talk and mutual admiration between two clubs that, until now, haven't really been rivals at all.

But on Thursday night, in one sickening, blood-spilling collision, all of that changed.
Canadiens centreman Lars Eller left the Bell Centre on a stretcher, having suffered a loss of consciousness, a concussion and facial and dental fractures after being flattened by Ottawa defenceman Eric Gryba.

And now, with the Senators' 4-2 Game 1 victory and Game 2 on tap here Friday night, this series has a very sharp edge. In one horrifying moment, whether you believe as does Ottawa coach Paul MacLean that the hit was just a "hockey play" that ended badly for Eller, two teams have carved themselves a very different relationship.

Senators goalie Craig Anderson was in different universe, making 48 saves to backstop the victory. Facing any other goaltender on this night, the Canadiens are winners.

But the Senators got the netminding they needed against a swarming Canadiens squad while Habs goalie Carey Price was beaten four times on 31 Ottawa shots.

It wasn't the loss that marked this night as much as the cataclysmic check that laid out Eller.

The 23-year-old was concussed by a high, hard check by Gryba 13:28 into the second period, levelled just inside the Canadiens blue line. Whether it was a direct or indirect head shot is subject to debate.

Eller had just taken a clearing pass from defenceman Raphael Diaz when he was crushed by the 6-foot-4, 222-pound Gryba, who read the play and made full-speed shoulder/tricep high contact with his target just as he took the puck. That Eller was bent a little increased his two-inch height disadvantage.

"If I'm Eller, I'm really mad at No. 61 (Diaz), whoever that is, for passing the puck when I'm not looking," MacLean said later. "It's always been a dangerous place."

Canadiens coach Michel Therrien would not discuss the check or its aftermath except to say: "We all saw the hit, I'm sure the league will review it. I'm not allowed to make any comment."

And, Therrien said, "I'm not going to blame Raphael."

Eller hit the ice heavily upon impact, face down, bleeding profusely, and was tended to by head athletic therapist Graham Rynbend, his assistant, Nick Addey-Jibb, and team doctor Vincent Lacroix. At Eller's side, Addey-Jibb waved his hand vigorously to quiet the by-now chanting fans.

Looking directly down on the player from the media gallery as he was wheeled off the rink on a stretcher, he was a bloody, eyes-glazed mess.

Eller remained in Montreal hospital overnight for observation, obviously out of action for Game 2 and quite possibly much longer than that.

Canadiens forward Rene Bourque later said that Eller had taken a "dirty hit" directly to the head and added that he believed Gryba deserved a suspension.

There was no immediate word whether the NHL, whose commissioner, Gary Bettman, was in attendance Thursday, will take any action.

Centre Ryan White said he didn't see the hit "too well, but when a guy is down in a heap like that, it's always tough to see. We're hoping Larry's going to be all right and back in action as soon as possible.

"We just wanted to stay focused (on the bench)," he added of the shock upon seeing Eller in such difficult shape, having left a lot of blood on the ice.

"It's tough seeing one of your teammates go down like that. We wanted to get that win for him. It didn't go that way tonight but it's a long series. . . . As a team, we played hard after that, we just got away from our game in the third."

The leadup to this series, the first between the two clubs in the NHL's modern era, had been remarkably placid.

No one expects the Senators and the Canadiens to wear the ugly face of the Habs and the Boston Bruins, whose rivalry has developed a true sense of hatred through 33 playoff series since 1929 — 33 more than Canadiens vs. Senators — and a forest of sticks reduced to kindling over skulls and bones.

The Habs and Bruins have faced each other 170 times in the postseason; the Habs and modern-day Senators now just once.

But as the best-of-seven between Montreal and Ottawa began Thursday, there was a terribly genteel mood, almost warm and fuzzy feelings of mutual respect exchanged by both sides for opposing players, cities, even fan bases.

If there was a frayed edge to this series, someone surely would have taken out a pair of sewing scissors and snipped it off, making sure the loose thread didn't unravel the hem.

Where one team's skin-pricking words can often fill the opponent's dressing-room blackboard, even benign comments used for motivation, the Habs and Senators uttered not a single contentious word before Game 1.

A single action, on this night, spoke with much greater volume.

There's a lot of hockey to be played before this series is decided. But with the scene of Eller leaving the ice a pulpy, scarlet mess, the atmosphere is hardly what it was before opening faceoff.

We're not at Habs vs. Bruins yet, but two teams have taken a dramatic step in that direction.