I can't bear to watch: Canadiens up against the wall

I can't bring myself to watch. After four consecutive games of the Canadiens playing from behind, the Habs are sapping me of my will to watch. I just don't know what I'm going to do if the Flyers score first again. I might smash the TV set. Or the wall. Or something else that's going to cost me money and energy to fix.

So, that's why I can't watch. Unfortunately, every time I turn on RDS, I feel a little like Sergei Kostitsyn must have felt when Derian Hatcher drove his little tiny head into the Bell Centre end boards.

I'm so torn. Part of me wants so badly to watch, to lose myself in the excitement, but I am being careful about it. Do you have any idea how many NHL teams have come back from a 3-1 series deficit to win the series since the lockout ended?

None. Not one, No Pittsburgh-Penguins-coming-back-to-defeat-the-Washington-Capitals-in-seven-on-their-way-to-the-Cup-in-1991. So, how can the Canadiens pull three wins out of their behinds and advance to the conference finals,. Where they could potentially meet up with the hottest team in hockey, the Pittsburgh Penguins (I see you, the Detroit Red Wings; I just choose to ignore you.)

Here are five surefire hardcore guesses and hunches about what the Montreal Canadiens must do in Saturday's Game 5 in Montreal and Sunday's Game 6 back in Philly.



1.Get Patrice Brisebois on the ice more often. No, I can't believe I wrote that either. The wily veteran knows how to get shots on the net and with the Canadiens' formerly potent power play in the tank, desperate measures are required to get things moving. Put Brisebois out there with Streit and let them fire away while the Habs forwards must….

2.Crash the net and get in Biron's kitchen. The Flyers are doing it to Price/Halak, and the Canadiens refuse to respond in kind. The result: Martin Biron gets to see every shot and has a chance at every rebound. Biron's a solid goalie if you let him square up to shooters with no traffic, and too often, that's what we're seeing.

3.Dress Michael Ryder, and sit Mathieu Dandenault. Dandy is a fine third-line player, but Dandenault has generated the fewest offensive chances for the Canadiens of any player in these playoffs, and Ryder can still score, no matter how little of it he did in the regular season.

4.Pummel R.J. Umberger. The fourth-line Flyers forward has morphed into the second coming of Tim Kerr or Reggie Leach. Send Mike Komisarek on a search-and-destroy mission, provided, of course that The Komisator can remember how to throw a bodycheck.

5. Two words: lucky tie