Habs are compulsive cleaners after my own heart

Through my childhood in Timmins, my father sold construction, logging, and mining equipment. Travelling the harsh Northern Territory in the dead of winter required meticulous preparation. And it required a perfect car. Long before cellphones or fourwheel drives or SUVs, the family sedan was the answer. It had better be in perfect running order. In our household, it also had to be clean. Not just clean, but spotless.

Every single night after dinner, my dad would go out to the garage and perform the ritual. I would tag along and watch.

I learned a lot from that car. It was a clean machine that ran perfectly in harsh conditions. On snow and ice, it kept going. But what I really learned was the importance of cleaning that car every single night. It was the consistency, the routine, and he controlled it. It just took a little time and a lot of hard work. There was nothing particularly skilful involved. Clean windows meant a clear look at things; clean all of the windows and you can see in every direction. Check the tire pressure every day and you were less likely to get a flat. Open the hood and make sure all the fluids were good.

There was a definite pride involved. Yes, sometimes it was boring and monotonous work. But if he did it well, he was certain of what he had.

That sedan is every bit like playing defence in the NHL: reliable, safe, not overly fancy, but consistent every night.

I’ve always analogized cleaning and defence, because it can be taught if there’s a willing listener. The same can’t be said of offence, which is about creativity and spontaneity and flair. It’s very challenging to teach goal scoring; the best all have some degree of innate ability. Scoring is the hardest thing to do in hockey. It’s much more fickle. It deserts you at the worst possible time. You can trust defence.

Like cleaning, defence brings an identity. A shutout is a clean sheet. A defender cleans up rebounds. A well-played event happens cleanly. I like to clean. It’s actually therapy for me, and intensified during my playing days. The more pressurized the situation, the more I cleaned.

One year, during the Stanley Cup final, a reporter was doing a piece on how different players handle pressure at its highest, and I casually mentioned my routine. The house was absolutely spotless during a deep playoff run, and I was fortunate enough to have several. I believe my exact quote was, “No one would dare touch my lemon Pledge during the playoffs.” A few days later, three cases of Pledge landed at my locker, courtesy of Johnson & Johnson. I was thrilled.

The Montreal Canadiens have cleaned up through the first two rounds of these playoffs, and no one saw them coming. The Leafs didn’t until it was too late. Comfortably ahead three games to one in the first round, Toronto watched the Canadiens come out for Game 5 in a different frame of mind. They took the lead early and never looked back. Their work ethic and attention to detail increased, and they ousted their rivals unceremoniously in seven games. Essentially, they cleaned.

Perhaps it was fitting that Montreal had made such a mess of the last few weeks of the season, and came dangerously close to missing the playoffs entirely. Key injuries to stalwart goalie Carey Price, D-man Shea Weber and forward Brendan Gallagher didn’t help, but in general the team was just out of sync. Nothing was clean. Desperation somehow bred clarity.

The Canadiens would score first in seven straight games. If you do that with a sense of desperation and urgency, you can play even for the rest of the game and come out the victor. And the leader of their cleaning crew, their goaltender, has shone on a nightly basis.

The success of this version of the Canadiens was always going to come down to defence. Price and Weber were set as cornerstones based on salary commitment and star seniority. The key for GM Marc Bergevin was the construction around them. After modest success in last year’s postseason versus Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, a plan started to percolate. Goaltending depth was supplemented with Jake Allen. The defence triad of Weber, Ben Chiarot and Jeff Petry was bolstered with the imposing Joel Edmundson. Veteran forwards with Stanley Cup pedigrees were added in quantity — Tyler Toffoli, Corey Perry and later Eric Staal bringing grit and savvy. Their best all-around forward the last couple of years, Phillip Danault, rediscovered his Selke nominee level.

Most important, the whole group bought into playing defence. They cleaned, they had fun doing it and they won. Their second round was even more convincing than their first, dismantling the Winnipeg Jets in four straight games.

Perhaps it’s fitting that a perfect series is called a sweep. They now have a clean slate as they step into the conference finals against Vegas.