10 Thoughts: Habs Cough Up Lead in Game and Series
Sunday night’s game four between the Habs and Lightning saw the Habs make no lineup changes while the Bolts decided to park Scott Sabourin and play their muscle on the blue line as Maxwell Crozier got into the lineup.
Tampa Bay was strong at 5-on-5 early, but the Canadiens were likely the better team as they kept the visitors quiet at even strength and then were much stronger on special teams. As has been the tendency in the series, when Tampa gets down or feels like they aren’t keeping up in a game, they turn the game into a clown show to turn the tide.
In game two, it was with the garbage after the whistle. In this one, many of the Lightning star players decided to flash their Stutzle Academy badges to get more power play opportunities and they were rewarded for it as they clawed out of a 2-0 hole to win it 3-2 and even the series at two wins apiece. Make no mistake, as nauseating as it is to watch Tampa’s behaviour, the Habs were entirely guilty of falling into the garbage game plan by Cooper-Kucherov and Co for the first time this series.
Habs Lineup
Cole Caufield — Nick Suzuki — Juraj Slafkovsky
Alex Newhook — Oliver Kapanen — Ivan Demidov
Zach Bolduc – Kirby Dach – Alexandre Texier
Jake Evans – Phillip Danault — Josh Anderson
Mike Matheson – Kaiden Guhle
Lane Hutson — Alexandre Carrier
Arber Xhekaj – Jayden Struble
Jakub Dobes
10 Thoughts
1) The first period was a strange one where the advanced stats did not really line up with the eye test. Most of the advanced stats preferred Montreal’s period to the Lightning’s. Most of the individual stats preferred the Lightning players, and so did the eye test. The Lightning appeared to be at their fastest since the Game 2 overtime and the better team at 5-on-5. Tampa came out strong and got the game’s first three shots. Then they got a power play due to a too-many-men penalty. The Canadiens continued to keep the Lightning away from the middle of the ice and killed it off.
2) Tampa then opened the door with back-to-back penalties, one to Crozier for high-sticking and then a dumb one by Yanni Gourde for cross-checking on a forecheck. Montreal’s team stats looked strong for three reasons. They dominated the physical game, out-hitting the Lightning 23-10. They were a dominant 63% on faceoffs. Finally, they dominated the special teams. The two best chances in the period were during two Habs power plays. In the end, the Canadiens were ahead 9-6 on the shot clock despite a scoreless first.
3) The second period started with a dumb retaliation boarding penalty by Anderson on Ryan McDonagh. Anderson hurt himself on the play and left the ice although he would return six minutes later. Montreal’s strong penalty killing continued as they kept Tampa Bay off the board as the first half of the period settled into a bit of a chess match. The second half of the period was the opposite as the fireworks went off. This started with an excellent Texier play in the defensive zone that opened a lane for Guhle to hit Bolduc in stride. Bolduc came in, challenged by Darren Raddysh. This challenge forced him to shuffle the puck toward the net. It hit Andrei Vasilevskiy, bounced up, and hit Bolduc to find itself in the net. It was easily the greasiest goal scored by the Habs this series, but it was clearly the type of goal needed to open the scoring in this game.
4) The next shift saw the officials get involved as they gave Newhook a crazy soft hooking call. The Habs once again killed the penalty despite Jake Guentzel hitting the post. Guentzel was then awarded a pretty cheap slashing call on Dobes, sending the Habs to their own man advantage. On said advantage, Suzuki showed great patience to create space for himself which ultimately led to an open lane down low to Caufield, who scored his first of the series. With the series’ first two-goal lead, anyone with a brain knew Tampa was going to get stupid. The surprise was maybe that for the first time this series, the Habs fell into the trap.
5) This started when Corey Perry got Struble’s stick across the face, creating a large scrum. Both teams ended up with two players in the box. Suzuki then forechecked Raddysh hard enough to create a panic clear and another Montreal power play. This was easily their worst one of the night, and it created momentum for Tampa Bay. On the next shift, Slafkovsky was served a stupid suicide pass and Crozier let it rip as he lowered the boom on Slafkovsky, who immediately went to the dressing room. Habs fans will complain that Crozier jumped into the hit with intent to injure, but the fact is that it was a stupid pass to make in the first place. The Habs immediately jumped to their player’s defence and were lucky to end up just shorthanded and not down 5-on-3.
6) Brandon Hagel was given a retaliatory slashing minor to send the game to 4-on-4. My belief here is that the Hagel minor likely does not get called if Jon Cooper takes his power play and stops barking at the officials for a 5-on-3. Tampa took advantage of the 4-on-4 as J.J. Moser went cross-ice to Guentzel, who beat Struble to the open ice before putting a puck over Dobes to make it 2-1 with 54 seconds to play in the period. After two periods, it was 2-1 Habs, but 16-15 Tampa in shots.
7) The third period started with a short Canadiens power play and some great news as Slafkovsky was on the ice. A minute into the period, Kapanen was sloppy with his stick as he took a high-sticking penalty, one replays showed was a clear embellishment by Dominic James. Still, the Habs got away with quite a bit to end the second period, so the officials were likely out to call a quick one against them, in my opinion. On the power play, Nikita Kucherov quickly found Hagel and the game was tied.
8) Through the first eight minutes of the final period, the Habs held momentum and the top line looked poised to score. Tampa was guilty of holding and interfering all over the ice, which should have resulted in at least one power play. Instead, the Habs were called for three penalties to the Lightning’s one as the league wanted this series to be tied up. The first was a no-doubter as Matheson got his stick up on Guentzel.
9) A minute into what was a brilliant penalty killing shift by Evans, the Habs got gamed by Kucherov. Evans pushed Kucherov, who went down like he was shot and would never be able to play hockey again. Cooper was going nuts (what else is new) and the Lightning got a 5-on-3. The Habs were able to kill the sequence, but the momentum had swung. With approximately five minutes to play, Kucherov was at the end of yet another extended shift (he must really have been hurt) when he fired a puck to the net that bounced off Hagel and into the net.
10) The Habs would be awarded a power play in the final minutes on what was a completely phantom call on Kucherov. A dead giveaway that the officials knew Kucherov had gamed them. They pushed hard and pulled Dobes, but while the advantage looked dangerous, the tendency of the night kept up as they just lacked that final degree of execution to really make Tampa pay. In the end, the series was tied at two and it’s going to be a circus in Tampa on Wednesday night.
HabsWorld Habs 3 Stars
1st Star – Nick Suzuki
This was Suzuki’s best game in the series as he was all over the puck all night long. In the end, the stats are not as great as the game played by the captain. Caufield finally scored and looked like he was flying at times, but he was also guilty of a few fly-bys that resulted in his line spending some extended time in the defensive zone. This is why I did not choose him as one of the selected players for the Habs on this night in relation to Suzuki who was physical and defensively excellent on top of his strong puck play.
Stats: 1 assist, -1, 3 shots, 4 hits, 22:23 T.O.I.
2nd Star – Zach Bolduc
While the line of Bolduc-Dach-Texier was not as effective as in game three, I felt like Bolduc was the one who kept his game at that level. He continued to play hard and win races and battles instead of reverting to soft stick checks that I felt Dach, in particular, was guilty of on this night. Bolduc was also rewarded with the game’s opening goal.
Stats: 1 goal, +1, 2 shots, 3 hits, 11:53 T.O.I.
3rd Star – Jakub Dobes
Tampa is figuring out Dobes a bit, but the young netminder continues to battle hard and give the Habs a chance to win games. He did not get much help once the Habs got up 2-0. Here’s hoping he gets more help in the rest of what should be a gruelling series end.
Stats: 17 saves on 20 shots, 3.09 GAA, .850 save %, 58:17 T.O.I.
Following the game, the Habs made a roster move, sending defenceman David Reinbacher back to Laval. Their playoff series against Toronto gets underway on Wednesday.