The Montreal Canadiens' Max Pacioretty practises on Monday in Brossard, Que. Pacioretty hopes to be cleared for Tuesday.Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press
It is human nature to nitpick – few things in life are so good they can't be improved upon.
The tendency, then, is to test and prod for weak links. With the Montreal Canadiens, this often involves third-line centre/whipping boy Lars Eller.
For much of the regular season, the rangy Dane did little of note offensively – having hideously tough defensive assignments most nights didn't help his cause.
As the playoffs heave into view, however, his game has improved markedly in terms of both statistics (a third of his modest offensive production has come in the past six weeks) and the eye test. Eller is, after all, a "playoff player."
If you think such creatures don't exist, here comes Habs defenceman P.K. Subban to disabuse you.
"Either you want to continue to play or you don't. It's easy to see the guys that want to continue to play – by the way they perform and the work ethic they put in," said Subban, a noted postseason beast. "It's not just about scoring goals and winning and losing games. You can win a playoff game or lose one, but to me it's the effort you put out there."
Last season, Eller demonstrated he had no issue with expending large amounts of effort, tallying 13 points in 17 playoff games – second only to Subban's 14.
So what's really different about the playoffs?
"The stakes. The atmosphere, when you go on the ice for the anthems. The whole pump-up. The importance of every game, every shift, every scoring chance – it just means that much more," said Eller, who didn't survive two periods the last time Montreal played the Ottawa Senators in 2013 (he was hit illegally by Eric Gryba).
Winger Max Pacioretty, who made his postseason bow against Ottawa (he was held pointless; the Habs lost the series), said it can take a while to cover the distance between talking about fighting for every inch and actually doing it.
"You do [have to learn]. It is so crazy the little amount of time and space you have out there. It might not look like it sometimes from the overhead … but down on the ice level, I mean, the playoffs are crazy," Pacioretty said.
The Habs' top scorer is out with an unspecified "upper body" injury (it's widely believed to be a concussion), but practised with his teammates and hopes to be cleared for full contact on Tuesday.
Should Pacioretty be available for the series opener, he will try to build on last year's postseason showing: After just three points in his first eight contests, he notched eight in his last nine games.
There were signs in Eller's younger days that he enjoyed big occasions. He scored 15 goals in 38 career postseason tilts in the Swedish Elite League.
"It's a very individual thing … but just to get to this level you've already been in a lot of pressure situations and you've played in big games before. Although this is a different level, you have to approach it the same way and find that inner motivation, I guess," the 25-year-old said.
The Habs' Brendan Gallagher, who scored 11 points in 17 playoff games last year, is another example of a player with a long postseason and big-game pedigree. He totalled up 33 points in his final 26 playoff games in junior.
Centre David Desharnais, another favourite of the glass-half-empty crowd, has had qualified success in the NHL playoffs – 8 points in 17 games last season – but absolutely killed it in the postseason everywhere else (103 points in 85 contests in junior and the minors).
Maybe this will be the year he explodes for the Habs, who will need strong performances from the likes of Desharnais, Gallagher, Eller, Devante Smith-Pelly and Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau to repeat or better last year's run to the conference final.
Eller is up for the challenge.
"If you're a truly competitive person," he said, "you're going to look for those occasions and want to rise to them."