Montreal Canadiens' Brendan Gallagher falls in the crease as Ottawa Senators' Patrick Wiercioch (46) defends during the second period of an NHL Stanley Cup playoff hockey game, Sunday April 26, 2015, in Ottawa.Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
Challenging times are helpful in exposing deeper truths, so maybe rough-hewn Ottawa Senators defenceman Eric Gryba can be described as an agent of revelation.
About nine minutes into the third period of Sunday's elimination game against the Montreal Canadiens, the burly Saskatchewanian eyed up Habs forward Brendan Gallagher as he juggled a puck near centre ice.
Gryba took a hard stride, lowered a shoulder and hammered his quarry into the boards with a clean but nevertheless hellacious hit. Gallagher was turning just as the uh-oh moment occurred.
"I didn't want to bail out," Gallagher said afterward in a jubilant Montreal dressing room.
The statement referred to a specific event, but it was also something bigger.
The Canadiens were pounded by the Senators – physically, emotionally, psychologically – but they hung in there.
Successful hockey clubs thrive on that sort of thing. It provides an obstacle to conquer and it measures character – a word the Habs use a lot.
If any one player personifies what they mean, it's the 5-foot-9-inch Gallagher, as much pinata and punching bag as a winger and scorer of the series-clinching goal.
"I had to stay in there and try to chip the puck in. I saw him coming," he said, "but those happen often enough."
Indeed they do, particularly when Gryba and men like him populate the ice.
Early in Game 3, he nailed the Habs' Torrey Mitchell with a similar hit, which the wry forward described afterward as "a nice little wake-up call that there was a game on."
Embracing the risk of being abused in such a fashion may seem a tad unhealthy – especially if you have designs on staying in the game or, you know, enjoying the unfettered use of all your limbs.
But players in the NHL take this view: To be successful is to have the courage to take a thumping – both literally and metaphorically – in the service of a greater good, skate back to the bench and be willing to do it again.
It at least partly explains why the Habs emerged on the smiling side of the series-ending handshake line.
That, and goaltending.
Postseries dissections always reveal shortcomings and concerns to be flagged, but in Gallagher's mind the Habs benefited from an early playoff test.
"We're happy with where we are. [Ottawa] is a very dangerous team. They're a good hockey club. You look at what they did the last half of the season – they would have given anyone a scare," he said. "For us, we won close hockey games – that was the difference. We were able to bear down … it speaks to the character of our team."
Relief? There was some of that in the Montreal dressing room after Sunday's 2-0 squeaker. No player denied they had been lucky (e.g., the quick whistle in the first that nullified an apparent Ottawa goal).
It's not the whole story, however.
Defenceman P.K. Subban said there are tangible benefits to being pushed hard in a playoff series, and the Habs expected nothing less from the Sens.
The view is that growth is only really possible through adversity.
"I think it's good that we had to come in here to win this," Subban said.
The experience, he continued, will stand them in good stead in the next round and hopefully beyond.
The club learned in last season's run to the Eastern Conference final, and in particular after defeating the Boston Bruins in seven games in Round 2, that it's paramount to get the dose of euphoria after winning just right.
"I felt we got so emotionally hyped-up in that Boston series, it's important for us to control that and gauge how much energy we use. I'm happy we got this series, but this is not our end goal," Subban said.
For those inclined to sharpen their red pencils, there are plenty of things to draw circles around in the Habs' effort against the Senators.
Some of them were predictable: the power play sucked; the team had trouble scoring goals; top scorer Max Pacioretty looked as if he wasn't quite himself upon returning from a concussion; and Carey Price stole the most pivotal game of the series and came close to stealing a second.
The series also taught the viewing public a few things it may not have known about the club's blueline.
The normally metronomic Andrei Markov was made to look worryingly slow and uncharacteristically error-prone.
Trade-deadline acquisition Jeff Petry stood out as Montreal's best defenceman of the series, eclipsing even Subban (who put in what, by his exacting standard, can only qualify as an average performance).
Young blueliner Nathan Beaulieu was revealed to be a key cog in the Habs' defence, which struggled to find balance after he exited Game 3 after a crunching hit by Ottawa's Erik Karlsson. He was ruled out for the series, and there is no update on his status for Round 2.
The Canadiens will now have the better part of a week to prepare for either Tampa Bay or Detroit and make the necessary tweaks to their game to avoid disappointment.
"Unless you win every game 10-0, there's always room for improvement," Price said.
The Habs expected to be tested by Ottawa, and they earned a passing grade – barely.
They know sterner challenges await.