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In the playoffs, sometimes it comes down to the ‘bounces’

Antoine Vermette, Frederik Andersen

Antoine Vermette, Frederik Andersen

AP

By and large, Montreal Canadiens owner Geoff Molson is happy with how the season went.

He just wishes a few more bounces had gone his team’s way in the playoffs, where, by his count, the Habs hit 13 posts on their way to being eliminated in the second round.

“In order to have success in the playoffs, you kind of have to get those bounces once in a while,” Molson said, per the Montreal Gazette. “I look back to 1993 when we won the Cup. Ten of our 16 wins were in overtime. So the stars were aligned for us that year, and this year wasn’t our year.”

Luck, for lack of a better word (perhaps a better word is “randomness”), is always a controversial subject when it comes to hockey. And with so much parity in today’s NHL, it’s been coming up more and more, if only to try and explain why some good teams win and other good teams don’t.

Nobody’s saying that luck is everything. Obviously it’s not, but just look at the Western Conference Final. With a couple of overtime bounces, the Anaheim Ducks could’ve already eliminated the Chicago Blackhawks.

Instead, the series is tied 2-2.

“When you lose in overtime, you lose in overtime,” said Ryan Kesler, whose Anaheim side has lost twice that way in the series. “That’s the way it goes sometimes. One bounce here or there, it’s a different story. So we are where we are.”

And just in case you were going to accuse Kesler of making excuses, here’s Chicago’s Andrew Desjardins: “One bounce here and there, you never know. ... I think it’s playoff hockey. It seems like right now it’s a tight game. I think that’s the way it’s going to be.”

Overtime records of past five Stanley Cup champs

2014 Los Angeles: 5-2
2013 Chicago: 5-2
2012 Los Angeles: 4-0
2011 Boston: 4-1
2010 Chicago: 3-1