from Stu Cowan of the Montreal Gazette,

There are some things that have changed and others that haven’t since the Canadiens last played a postseason game on May 12, 2015.

The Canadiens lost 4-1 to the Tampa Bay Lightning that night at Amalie Arena, dropping the best-of-seven, second-round series in six games. Max Pacioretty scored the only goal for the Canadiens, who scored five times in the four games they lost to the Lightning.

Offence was the Canadiens’ downfall in that series and offence will be the biggest question mark again when they meet the New York Rangers in the first round of the playoffs this season, with Game 1 Wednesday night at the Bell Centre.

Just like they did two years ago, the Canadiens head into the playoffs as Atlantic Division champions. In 2015, they beat the Ottawa Senators in six games in the first round. Many of the faces on the Canadiens have changed during the last two years with only 10 players remaining from the lineup for that Game 6 loss to the Lightning: Pacioretty, Brendan Gallagher, Tomas Plekanec, Torrey Mitchell, Alex Galchenyuk, Jeff Petry, Nathan Beaulieu, Alexei Emelin, Andrei Markov and goalie Carey Price. There’s also a new coach in Claude Julien.

But the Canadiens are still committed to defence and will once again go as far as Price can carry them.

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