Certain playoff seasons can rocket teams into championship contention. Need proof of this? Look at the Los Angeles Kings. In 2012 They snuck into the playoffs and end up winning the Stanley Cup. They’ve been one of the best and most feared NHL teams since then. To compare the Montreal Canadiens to the Kings isn’t very fair, LA won the Stanley Cup in 2012 and 2014 where Montreal only got as far as the conference finals. If you want a better comparison maybe it would be the 2009 Chicago Blackhawks. A young team that would soon take the NHL by storm. That Hawks team also made it to the conference finals falling to the Detroit Red Wings in 5 games. After that Conference finals appearance by Chicago they have been a force to be reckoned with winning 2 cups since 2010. Montreal was probably hoping for the same.
Two games into the second round of these 2015 playoffs and things don’t look good for one of the leagues best teams. Down 0-2 to the Tampa Bay Lightning who most people didn’t think had a chance even though Tampa Bay won all 5 games against le habitants this season. As with almost every series a 2-0 series can tell a lot of stories and let me share some with you now. This is both deserved and perhaps unfortunate. Game 1 Montreal seemed to control most of that game and Lightning goaltender made some great saves to keep his team ahead 1-0 for a long period of time. If not for a gaffe by Bishop in the 3rd period where he should have had an easy glove save they could have won game 1 1-0 in regulation. Instead Bishop did not make the save and the puck went in and out of his glove and bounced into the goal forcing OT.
The unfortunate part for the Canadiens in that 2OT game is the play that ended up winning the game shouldn’t have happened. An uncalled offside play led to the Lightning getting the puck deep and working on the Canadiens defense and ultimately getting the game winning goal from Nikita Kucherov. You can blame the miss call if you want but if you’re anything like me then you’d say you have 80+ minutes before that to win the game why are you relying on a linesman in double overtime.
Game 2 is a little different. Montreal came out tough grabbing an early 1-0 lead. Things looked good, the team looked great, fast and could have ran away with that game. Something happened later in that game though. Who knows exactly what it was but Montreal looked to disengage, they took penalties and stupid penalties and the struggling Tampa Bay power play opened them up to what would eventually become a 5-1 game. That game ended up 6-2 putting Montreal in a very tough spot, down 0-2 going on the road for the next 2 games.
This series so far concerns me for the Canadiens. Looking back maybe they aren’t as good as we thought they were. The first round is mainly what I’m pointing to. Montreal beat the Ottawa Senators 4-2 that series being up 3-0 before losing 2 straight eventually winning game 6. The Canadiens definitely did good things that series but they probably did not deserve all of that 3-0 lead. Two bad goals against Senator goalies both in overtime in game 2 and 3 gave Montreal a 3-0 lead. What if those goalies save those goals? Montreal may not be up 3-0 they could have been down 2-1. And instead of having to battle back to get into the series by winning 2 straight maybe those 2 straight wins gives Ottawa a 4-1 series win. Ottawa had great goaltending down the stretch heading into the playoffs but 2 bad goals killed them this series.
Goaltending isn’t something Tampa Bay has to worry about. Former Vezina candidate Ben Bishop has looked shaky don’t get me wrong but he’s only allowed 3 goals in 75 shots in the 2 games this series. Compare that to likely MVP and Vezina trophy winner this year Corey Price who has allowed 8 goals on 59 shots. Price is everything Montreal is, MVP could not be more true for this man, without Price Montreal could be a lottery team. Sure, you can’t blame everything on Price, the Canadiens defense wasn’t good in game 2 and their penalty killing in that same game was awful but Montreal knows they can push on offense because they have Price back there. If Montreal has to start playing a little more defensively because they are worried about the Lightning offense, that takes away from their offense meaning easier work to Tampa Bay’s defense and goalie Bishop.
This puts Montreal in a very sticky situation. Montreal plays a fast game trying to get at you faster get goals on the rush and letting Dmen jump up into the play. If they have to slow down and Tampa Bay prevents to Canadien Dmen from getting involved Montreal’s offense will go down. That will allow the Lightning to do what they have done this series, getting to puck deep working hard to get the puck draw some penalties and score on the power play.
On top of that Montreal doesn’t have a bunch of offensive game breakers anyways. American Max Pacioretty is the go to guy for Canadiens offense. 37 goals for the season is impressive, but if the Lightning have to focus on shutting down 1 guy what else does Montreal have? Tampa Bay is a deeper team offensively with Stamkos, Johnson, Kucherov, Palat, Filppula and then players like Callahan, Boyle and Morrow who will get deep and make the Montreal defense work and hurt. Putting all those things together Montreal could be in some serious trouble here.
Being down 0-2 isn’t insurmountable teams have come back down 2 but if the remainder of this series has anything like game 2 from Montreal this could up being a short series. Tampa Bay has been built great by former Red Wing legend Steve Yzerman getting good forward depth and a solid defense as well as a good goalie. I did pick the Lightning to go to the finals in my preseason prediction and so far I’m liking that pick very much, but there is still work to be done. If the Lightning keep up what they’ve done so far this series they’re off to the conference finals against New York Rangers or the Washington Capitals. Montreal on the other hand, if they want to play either of those two teams they have a lot of work ahead of them. One would be trying to find some offense against Bishop and the Lightning defense and protecting MVP Price. Those are two issues you don’t want to be facing right about now.
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