It was a light week for the Habs, who only played twice. They didn’t muster up a great effort to end the regular season but they bounced back with an important victory in Tampa Bay to start their playoff series on a good note.
The Week That Was
Apr. 14: Flyers 4, Canadiens 2 – In a game where the Habs had a chance to keep their quest for home-ice advantage alive, they played as if they didn’t care about that. Several veterans were rightfully rested while those who played lacked the requisite level of effort as they were content to try to get through the game without injuries (which wasn’t the worst outcome). Brendan Gallagher and Jake Evans scored in the second to make it a one-goal game but that was as close as they got and even with Cole Caufield firing from pretty much everywhere, he couldn’t score to get into a share of the lead for the Rocket Richard trophy.
Apr. 19: Canadiens 4, Lightning 3 (OT) – Josh Anderson opened up the scoring and looked like he doubled the lead in the second period but the goal was called back for a high stick. That woke Tampa Bay up as they quickly scored twice to take the lead. But Montreal’s power play, which struggled late in the year (and early in the game), came to life. Juraj Slafkovsky scored not once, not twice, but thrice, the latter coming early in overtime to steal away home ice advantage from the Lightning.
StatPack
Skaters:
| # | Player | GP | G | A | +/- | PIMS | SOG | ATOI |
| 8 | Mike Matheson | 1 | 0 | 1 | +1 | 0 | 0 | 22:56 |
| 11 | Brendan Gallagher | 1 | 1 | 0 | +1 | 0 | 1 | 11:34 |
| 13 | Cole Caufield | 2 | 0 | 2 | -2 | 0 | 12 | 21:16 |
| 14 | Nick Suzuki | 2 | 0 | 2 | -1 | 0 | 1 | 22:56 |
| 15 | Alex Newhook | 2 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 2 | 2 | 16:01 |
| 17 | Josh Anderson | 1 | 1 | 0 | +1 | 4 | 1 | 14:47 |
| 20 | Juraj Slafkovsky | 2 | 3 | 0 | -4 | 2 | 9 | 21:50 |
| 21 | Kaiden Guhle | 2 | 0 | 1 | E | 4 | 3 | 19:21 |
| 24 | Phillip Danault | 1 | 0 | 0 | +1 | 0 | 1 | 13:19 |
| 42 | Adam Engstrom | 1 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 1 | 15:28 |
| 45 | Alexandre Carrier | 1 | 0 | 1 | +1 | 0 | 0 | 18:36 |
| 47 | Jayden Struble | 2 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 1 | 14:55 |
| 48 | Lane Hutson | 2 | 0 | 1 | -2 | 0 | 2 | 27:34 |
| 64 | David Reinbacher | 1 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 0 | 1 | 15:00 |
| 71 | Jake Evans | 2 | 1 | 0 | +1 | 0 | 3 | 13:16 |
| 72 | Arber Xhekaj | 2 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 0 | 3 | 15:23 |
| 76 | Zachary Bolduc | 2 | 0 | 0 | -1 | 2 | 1 | 11:04 |
| 77 | Kirby Dach | 2 | 0 | 0 | E | 2 | 0 | 11:03 |
| 85 | Alexandre Texier | 2 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 0 | 3 | 13:43 |
| 90 | Joe Veleno | 1 | 0 | 1 | E | 0 | 0 | 10:16 |
| 91 | Oliver Kapanen | 2 | 0 | 0 | E | 0 | 2 | 10:21 |
| 93 | Ivan Demidov | 2 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 0 | 3 | 18:20 |
Goalies:
| # | Player | Record | GAA | SV% | SO |
| 75 | Jakub Dobes | 1-1-0 | 3.58 | .854 | 0 |
Playoff Team Leaders:
Goals: Juraj Slafkovsky (3)
Assists: Caufield/Suzuki (2)
Points: Juraj Slafkovsky (3)
+/-: 5 tied at (+1)
PIMS: Anderson/Guhle (4)
Shots: Juraj Slafkovsky (7)
News And Notes
– Alexandre Carrier was able to return from his injury for the start of the playoffs. In doing so, the Habs had to either convert David Reinbacher’s recall to a regular one or send him back to Laval. They opted for the former as he remains with the Canadiens for now.
– If you’re keeping track, Montreal has used three of their five allowable recalls now. Jacob Fowler was the first just after the deadline, Adam Engstrom was the second when his recall was converted to a regular one after coming up on emergency conditions, and Reinbacher’s conversion is now the third.
– Juraj Slafkovsky is the first player in franchise history to score three power play goals in a playoff game.
Last Game’s Lines:
Caufield – Suzuki – Slafkovsky
Texier – Newhook – Demidov
Bolduc – Kapanen – Dach
Evans – Danault – Anderson
Guhle – Hutson
Matheson – Carrier
Struble – Xhekaj
The Series Ahead
Game 2: April 21, 7 PM ET in Tampa Bay
Game 3: April 24, 7 PM ET in Montreal
Game 4: April 26, 7 PM ET in Montreal
Game 5: April 29, TBD* in Tampa Bay
Game 6: May 1, TBD* in Montreal
Game 7: May 3, TBD* in Tampa Bay
Final Thought
Martin St. Louis has been a fan of suggesting that he doesn’t like to number his lines. While I think that’s not necessarily the case with the top unit (which is clearly their top option), I think we’re going to see a good example of the notion in this Tampa Bay series.
The fourth line of Jake Evans, Phillip Danault, and Josh Anderson is listed as the fourth line but may very well be Montreal’s second line. With the Lightning featuring two strong scoring lines, the Danault line is going to be a matchup line against one of the two while Nick Suzuki’s trio will ideally be used in a best-on-best matchup on the other one. (At least when the series goes back to Montreal). The extra usage for the Danault trio effectively made them line two on Sunday night.
Meanwhile, the other two lines have been consistently inconsistent which has been why those two trios were juggled around down the stretch. That’s all well and good late in the season after you clinched a playoff spot but predictability means more in the postseason which doesn’t bode well for Alex Newhook or Oliver Kapanen’s groups. If they’re going, great, but if not, the coaching staff will skip some shifts for them to give to others. That fate won’t be happening to Suzuki’s line and it’d be stunning if it happened to Danault’s. It’s a high-paid fourth line but now, they’re about to get used a lot more than that.