Thread by @emanningwrites

It's game day again! #GoHabsGo!

Was thinking about something earlier today and with things being somewhat quiet on Habs Twitter I figured nobody'd mind a late-night hockey/literary thread (or would skip if they do). I was thinking about that comment by Sheldon Keefe re: how..

...the series momentum changed after Kotkaniemi and Caufield came in.

Lots of people pointed out that, in fact, the Habs lost the next three games after KK returned to the lineup. But Keefe's full comments included something to the effect that the change wasn't...

...immediate, so it's not quite the point objectors think it is.

I saw (and retweeted) a comment from someone annoyed with Keefe for saying this at all. The commenter said, in effect, that Keefe was blaming the loss on the arrival of Merry and Pippin from "The Lord...

...of the Rings". The commenter was clearly poking fun at the idea.

But as someone who spent an inordinate amount of her childhood reading and re-reading LOTR, I realized that the commenter didn't quite realize the implications of the comparison. Because Merry...

...and Pippin ARE momentum-shifters in the trilogy. They're not unimportant secondary characters; they play an irreplaceable part in driving the story. Boromir dies trying to keep them from being kidnapped by Orcs (though he fails); their kidnapping splits the...

...fellowship. Pippin's fascination with the Palantir impacts the story as well, as does Merry's aid to Eowyn when Eowyn fights and kills the lord of the Nazgul. And when Merry and Pippin return home to the Shire after the fall of Sauron and the destruction...

...of the Ring, they have both become heroes in their own right and are instrumental in rooting out the evils that have overtaken the Shire and restoring their own part of the world to its customary placidity and happiness. They may not be the main characters...

...in LOTR but nobody can imagine the story without them.

The young Habs have something in common with Tolkien's young Hobbits. No one expects Kotkaniemi, Caufield, or even Suzuki to become the "main characters" in the Habs' playoff run in the way that...

...some of the established (and older) stars on other teams are. The Habs' main character is named Carey Price, and the supporting cast of the story includes Habs veterans and skilled newcomers and older acquisitions all of whom play roles of importance. As Ducharme...

...and some players have said in recent days, the Habs have become a team, and are playing with and for each other, buying in to the system, doing their jobs and trusting the guy next to them to do his. Like the members of the fellowship of the Ring they are united around...

...a single purpose and are attempting to stay focused on it. And somehow, bringing in the energy and enthusiasm and skill of young players who have a lot to offer but who also need guidance and direction helps the mission--something Keefe noticed, and something I also...

...believe to be true. In Tolkien's world, having characters like Merry and Pippin gives the writer a chance to explain things the reader doesn't know or has forgotten and also lets the writer contrive situations where the wisdom and experience of the older or more...

...important characters is balanced by the presence of the young ones (for example, when Merry's artless question about what the inscription on the Doors of Durin means leads Gandalf to crack the password). There may be no Doors of Durin to crack, but when more than...

...one young Habs player references the words of Corey Perry who, when the team was down 3-1 to the Leafs, told the "kids" how special and fleeting these playoff moments were and how important it was to seize the day, so to speak (and given that both Suzuki and...

...Kotkaniemi went on to score game-winning OT goals after hearing that little talk I can only imagine what it was like!), you see a similar dynamic at work between experience and youth.

Sheldon Keefe recognized something real and important about the team his Leafs...

...faced and fell to in the course of that seven-game series. They were better than expected in the first game, and the insertion of Kotkaniemi and Caufield into the lineup added to the balance of youth and skill and experience and wisdom Ducharme was already...

...in the process of assembling. It takes all of these pieces to win playoff hockey games. It takes a team. And this team has won five games in a row. That doesn't mean the task ahead is easy; one game at a time should be the focus. But the momentum that began with the...

...game 5 OT win and grew after the game 6 OT win and surged after the game 7 win and has now increased through two games in Winnipeg is still on the Habs' side--and the "kids" are as important as ever in helping to sustain that momentum.