As the young Habs team made the playoffs for the second time since the rebuild, they managed 106 points in the regular season, the same as the second-placed (in the Atlantic) Tampa Bay Lightning, albeit with fewer regulation wins. That set the first-round matchup to be a rematch of the 2021 Stanley Cup Final, just earlier in the playoffs–and starting in Tampa Bay.
The Habs were not cowed or intimidated by the multiple Cup wins the Lightning have on their record, and held their own in the game overall, after some tentative play in the first half of the game. Nearly all the scoring was on the power play (expected goals on even strength were roughly 1-1) and Juraj Slafkovsky showed that he had come to Florida not only to play but to win, scoring three goals, all on the man advantage, to lead the Canadiens to a 4-3 victory in the series opener.
Starting Lines
Caufield – Suzuki – Slafkovsky
Texier – Newhook – Demidov
Bolduc – Kapanen – Dach
Evans – Danault – Anderson
Guhle – Hutson
Matheson – Carrier
Struble – Xhekaj
Dobes
Fowler
Ten Thoughts
1) The Habs were not strong in the first, and exacerbated that with sloppy penalties, with Alex Newhook (tripping), Juraj Slafkovsky (interference), and Kaiden Guhle (high-sticking) all making trips to the sin bin in the first period alone. Yes, some of those were marginal calls (particularly the one on Slafkovsky) and there were missed calls aplenty. But the team needs to be more disciplined and not give the Lightning as many power play opportunities as they did–and especially penalties in the offensive zone.
2) The Habs drew first blood in the series at 13:34 of the first period, on a counterattack. Alexandre Carrier fought Gage Goncalves in the corner and behind the net, eventually stripping the net from the bigger Tampa forward. He saw Josh Anderson driving for the front of the net, and the puck found the power forward’s stick in mid-slot, with Anderson moving to his left. Andrei Vasilevskiy was trying to anticipate his direction and left too much space on the short side, above his glove. Anderson lifted the puck over that glove into the top right of the net to give the Canadiens the early lead.
3) With a Guhle high-sticking penalty just before 13 seconds before the end of the first period, the Canadiens had to start the second on the penalty kill. The kill was effective again, but Nikita Kucherov decided to help them out some, high-sticking Alexandre Carrier. The power play looked improved and was exerting more pressure. And the team carried the momentum from the man advantage after the penalty expired. Still, the five-on-five play was nothing to particularly write home about.
4) At 10:43 of the second, it looked like Anderson had scored a second one, redirecting a shot from Carrier past Vasilevskiy, but the goal was eventually called back based on his stick having been above the crossbar when it made contact. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200. Just 12 seconds later, after the goal review, Charle-Edouard D’Astous got crunched in a Hab sandwich. D’Astous, with the puck on his stick and behind the Tampa Bay net, took a hard hit from Jake Evans, but at the same time, he was hit by a barrelling Anderson from the other side. D’Astous, a 27-year-old rookie defenceman, was slow to get up and did not return to the game. The referees ended up calling a charging penalty on Anderson, even though the Habs’ winger stopped striding well before the hit, did not make head contact, and did not leave his feet. Nevertheless, it was yet another Lightning power play, and this time they were able to make it work. After hitting both a goalpost and the crossbar, and Jake Evans breaking his stick, Nikita Kucherov got the puck to Darren Raddysh at the top of the left circle, and the veteran defender released a slap shot that beat Jakub Dobes high on the blocker side to tie the game at 1-1.
5) All right, so having the opposition tie the game back up is not the end of the world, and the Habs have shown themselves to be nothing if not resilient throughout this year. However, this time, the team seemed to be stunned from having been scored on, and the game plan went out the window. It took only 29 seconds until Brandon Hagel was open in front of the net, with Guhle unable to contain him, Lane Hutson behind the net, and the forwards a few steps too far away. With the puck loose and Hagel equally so, there was little Dobes could do to prevent him from scoring.
6) The Tampa fourth line (Conor Geekie, James, and Corey Perry) got minimal ice time from Jon Cooper, a total of less than six minutes (a couple of minutes more for the individual players). Geekie made sure to use that time for maximum impact, cross-checking Hutson high, in the Montreal zone, yet. He was sent off for two minutes for high-sticking, and I suppose this stick was high as well, about two minutes before the end of the second. Unlike the first-period attempts, by this time, the bleu blanc et rouge had their power play ticking, with control and movement. A Cole Caufield pass from the left side to Ivan Demidov was suddenly on the stick of Slafkovsky, at the right-side faceoff dot, and he made no mistake, lifting the puck into the top right corner, above Vasilevskiy’s glove, to tie the game back up.
7) 4:20 into the third frame, Anthony Cirelli dragged down Slafkovsky as the big Slovak was driving for the net on the left side, and got two minutes in the penalty box to think about his transgression. By this time, Martin St-Louis was relying heavily on his top power play unit, and they stayed on the ice for the full power play–albeit not quite two minutes, as Slafkovsky scored his second of the game on a smart play by Caufield. The Habs sniper faked a shot to get Vasilevskiy to commit and drop into a butterfly, allowing him to pass across the blue ice to Slafkovsky, who had plenty of net available to put the Habs ahead once again.
8) And in the next episode of our fascinating series, Penalties without a Cause, Zachary Bolduc swung lightly at the stick of J.J. Moser, having no useful effect other than Moser dropping his broken stick, immediately drawing a two-minute stay in the box for Bolduc. Nothing good could have come from that swing; that was just a foolish play. And foolishness often comes at a price–in this case, it was a second Hagel goal, 90 minutes into the power play. Kucherov passed to Jake Guentzel on the right side of the net, and Guentzel quickly redirected it to Hagel on the opposite post. The veteran winger had plenty of empty net to shoot at, and no Montreal defender ready to prevent him from doing that.
9) With just 21 seconds remaining, Guentzel, he of three assists on the Tampa goals, took a careless swing at a high shot with his stick deep in the Montreal zone, hitting Guhle in the neck with it. While the penalty calls were unpredictable and inconsistent in this game, high-sticking has little judgment associated with it, and will get called whenever it’s visible to the referees. And with the way Guentzel was swinging his stick, even Vasilevskiy would have called it. So, a power play for the last 0:21 of regulation, and 1:39 into the first overtime–assuming no one scores before that. Not the smartest penalty in the game.
10) While the Habs couldn’t get anything going in the remaining 21 seconds of regulation time, they came prepared for the OT man-advantage. Hagel was able to break up their first two attempts at setting up the power play. Then, after a Montreal time-out, Suzuki carried the puck in along the left-side boards, and passed the puck to Hutson at the top centre of the Tampa Bay zone. He spotted Slafkovsky driving for the net on the left and sent off a tidy pass. Slafkovsky controlled it, undressed Erik Cernak, and saw Vasilevskiy out of position. A quick wrist shot to the top-right corner (again!) of the net beat the Russian veteran cleanly and sealed a 4-3 overtime win to start the series.
HW Habs Three Stars
First Star: Juraj Slafkovsky (3g, 0a, 7 shots, -1, 2 hits, 21:11 TOI) was a force to be reckoned with. Not only did he score the third-ever Habs overtime hat trick (and the first ever power play hat trick) in the playoffs, but he was smart, he was physical, he drew a penalty, and was a threat whenever he was on the ice. Forget Brady Tkachuk, the Habs look to have something much more than that in Slafkovsky.
Second Star: Lane Hutson (0g, 1a, 2 shots, -1, 1 block, 29:00) was tentative at first, as the Tampa forwards were aggressive in trying to take away his time and space, but he adjusted as the game went on. 29 minutes was nearly half the game, and the young defender seemed to be none the worse for wear.
Third Star: Josh Anderson (1g, 0a, 1 shot, +1, 1 block, 4 hits, 14:47 TOI) had shifted into his playoff gear and nearly had a second goal to add to the one he scored in the first period. Nearly 15 minutes on the ice included three-and-a-half minutes of penalty killing time. Anderson is not the player the fans expected when he arrived, but he is an excellent fit for the role Martin St-Louis has assigned to him.