The Montreal Canadiens are about to discover whether there really is any magic in their season.
So far, the Canadiens have lived charmed lives in their climb to the upper reaches of the NHL's Eastern Conference. This is not to say their lofty perch is undeserving. Thanks to a solid foundation of young talent put in place by general manager Bob Gainey and to a masterful coaching job by Guy Carbonneau in coaxing a career year out of Alexei Kovalev as well as making the Habs proficient at both ends of the ice, the Canadiens are the envy of the Toronto Maple Leafs and the five other Canadian NHL teams.
However, the bad luck that hounds every NHL team at one time or another arrived all at once for the Canadiens. With the playoffs only three games away, they have to cope with the loss of four key players to injuries.
Defenceman Mike Komisarek is out for at least the next two weeks with a hip injury, which means he will miss part of the Canadiens' first-round playoff series. Left winger Guillaume Latendresse is out with neck spasms, although he could play tomorrow night when the Canadiens meet the Ottawa Senators.
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Then two big blows came on Friday when captain Saku Koivu, the Canadiens' No. 2 centre, and defenceman Mark Streit were both lost to foot injuries in the Canadiens' come-from-behind win over the Buffalo Sabres.
There was no news on either player because the swelling in their feet had not gone down enough over the weekend for a proper prognosis.
Given the youth on the team, this will be troublesome. The playoffs are a different story from the regular season; the checking is more intense and every mistake is magnified in importance.
The early returns are not promising. The Canadiens slept through most of Friday's game in Buffalo before the Sabres collapsed late in the game and allowed them to sneak away with an overtime win. But the Canadiens were never in charge on Saturday in losing 4-2 to the Leafs, who had nothing to play for, which drew the ire of Kovalev.
He said the Canadiens did not take the Leafs seriously enough, which is a bad sign with the playoffs just around the corner.
He likened the situation to "a professional team playing against a junior team. Sometimes, I wouldn't say you don't take it seriously, but maybe you take it lightly.
"But the way you finish the regular season is the way you start the playoffs," Kovalev added. "Mentally, we weren't there, the last couple of games. We got lucky [against the Sabres].
"We have to learn from these last two games. It's definitely embarrassing when you're in the first spot and play like that."
The most important thing the Canadiens can do now, Kovalev said, is put the injuries out of their minds.
"Injuries happen," he said. "The more you think about them, the more they happen. We can't think about missing a couple of guys.
"Some young guys have the opportunity to show they belong in the league. That's what they have to do."
Streit's loss hurts the most because his ability to get the puck moving in his own end powers the Habs' offence and power play, both of which are the best in the NHL. Carbonneau dressed veteran defenceman Patrice Brisebois against the Leafs to replace Streit. Brisebois was often a healthy scratch in the second half of the season and will not replace Streit's offence - 58 points in 78 games.
Koivu may be the Canadiens' leader, but his play this season is not up to his usual standard, with 16 goals and 40 assists in 77 games.
Nevertheless, Koivu is part of a team-oriented, fore-checking offence that will have, assuming Christopher Higgins gets one more point before the end of the season, seven players with at least 50 points. The others are all three members of the explosive first line, Kovalev, centre Tomas Plekanec and left winger Andrei Kostitsyn, and defencemen Andrei Markov and Streit.
In Koivu's absence, one of the young players Kovalev was talking about, 24-year-old centre Mikhail Grabovski, will get a lot more ice time.
Despite his harsh words over the weekend games, Kovalev thinks his young teammates will be up for the postseason challenge.
"That's what is good about it, having a young team, because there are a lot of young, fresh legs you can put in," he said. "They work hard. This is their opportunity. They have to use it.
"They've shown it all year round, so why not?"
