By J.D. Lagrange, Senior Writer, All Habs Hockey Magazine
While winning is the ultimate goal in professional sports, there are times when one must look beyond the final score to build momentum, especially in the National Hockey League playoffs when series are a best of seven.
PENTICTON, BC. – The Tampa Bay Lightning stole game one and they know it. They were, for the most part, dominated by a more rested and determined Canadiens’ team who had for game plan to apply tremendous pressure and to hit them as often as possible, as evidenced by their 43 hits. Had it not been for a controversial goal early in the second overtime, where the Lightning appeared to be off-side, the game was, in the most part, to the Habs’ advantage.
The Canadiens had four full days off after eliminating the Ottawa Senators in six games. The Lightning wasn’t as fortunate, having to fight through a game seven against the Detroit Red Wings in a hard fought battle. By the time game three is over, they will have played seven gruelling playoffs’ games in 13 days. Twice in this series, the NHL has scheduled three games in four nights, and that’s where Michel Therrien’s troops have a huge advantage. While the Habs were licking their wounds, the Lightning players were getting more bumps and bruises.
One of the key offensive players on the Lighting, Tyler Johnson, is really banged up and he had to retreat to the dressing room last night to be looked after. Michel Therrien’s game plan should be to be physical against him all series long, to take away his effectiveness and make him suffer to make plays.
The Habs won 62 percent of the faceoffs in game one and those who like fancy stats will be glad to show you what we’ve all seen from our own eyes, which is that they controlled the play for most of the game. What hurt the Canadiens is what has been hurting they all season long, the lack of opportunism on offense, and a pathetic powerplay which, more often than not, seems to kill any momentum the team might have had prior to getting one.
Game one has shown some positives in comparison to the previous series. In spite of his three minor penalties, young Alex Galchenyuk played a very good game. He was creating chances and had some good scoring chances himself. He knows that he needs to be better and he wants to be a bigger contributor and that augurs well for the Habs.
THE NOTEBOOK
- Max Pacioretty, who has been rather invisible in the Ottawa series, has shown some great rushes in game one and while his goal was a gift from Bishop, he finished the game with five shots on goal. When your best sniper shoots on goal, it’s always a good sign as they will eventually go in.
- Devante Smith-Pelly (8 hits), Dale Weise (7 hits) and Brandon Prust (6 hits) were on a mission to “tenderize” the Lightning and they’ve done a great job. As the series goes along, those accumulated hits, combined with the trying schedule, should pay dividends for the Canadiens.
- While Carey Price is the best goaltender in the world, and arguably the best player in the NHL, not enough credit is given to Michel Therrien and his system, and to the Habs’ defensive core as a whole. You can’t blame Therrien for the lack of finish around Bishop’s net as the shots are there, the scoring chances are there. He has his team playing excellent hockey without the puck.
- The addition of Jeff Petry has filled the hole that Marc Bergevin was hoping Tom Gilbert would fill, which is a key role on the right side playing behind P.K. Subban. If they can’t re-sign Petry, Bergevin will have to find someone who can play those quality minutes. He and Alexei Emelin form a solid second pairing and they have often been given the uneasy task of playing against Steven Stamkos, doing an excellent job at that. In addition to his smooth skating ability and his great passing, Petry is quite physical, which makes he and Emelin a pairing difficult to play against.
- One point of concern is Tomas Plekanec, who is too often visibly intimidated when the play gets rougher and tighter. As the true pro that he is, he is still playing excellent defensive hockey but we can often notice that the battle level isn’t where it should be on the offensive side of the puck, getting rid of the puck sooner than he should in order to avoid a check. I know that those comments won’t sit well with several fans of Pleky but just like Galchenyuk, he needs to step up his game in order to help his team as they need the regular season Plekanec in order to be successful.
- While he hasn’t played badly, P-A Parenteau has not contributed anything for what he’s getting paid for, which is offense. I think it’s time to bring back Brian Flynn, who was having an excellent series before giving his place for the offensive potential of Parenteau.
- Greg Pateryn is relatively young and he’s learning, but he was not impressive in game one. I don’t know what Sergei Gonchar has done or said to Michel Therrien to not deserve a chance but I like his experience, not counting that he might be able to help on a struggling powerplay. This change would also allow everyone to play on their strong side and a third pairing of Gilbert, who is playing rather well, along with Gonchar, could be pretty good.
- Speaking of defensemen, P.K. Subban played 37:53 in game one, far more than anyone else on both teams. Victor Hedman played 31:52 and Jeff Petry was the only other players with over 30 minutes of ice time, finishing with 30:49.
This will be a very entertaining series as the teams don’t like each other and the outcome is a ticket to the Conference Finals. While the Lightning has gone through many changes since last year, the organization as a whole remembers the loss from last year and they plan on getting their revenge. The Canadiens however, have the same core and they plan on taking advantage of last year’s experience to once again, eliminate their counterpart.
Go Habs Go!!!