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Canadiens @ Lightning: Costly Mistakes | HABS GAME 1 RECAP

Montreal Canadiens vs Tampa Bay Lightning Recap: Habs Line-up, Score, Statistics, Highlights, Post-game Interviews, NHL Three-Stars, Stanley Cup Playoff Series

FINAL | Stanley Cup Final, Game 1 | Monday June 28, 2021

Lightning lead series 1-0

Amalie Arena, Tampa, FL

CANADIENS

Montreal

1-5

LIGHTNING

Tampa Bay

Nikita Kucherov, Tyler Toffoli (Photo by Scott Audette/NHLI via Getty Images)

Canadiens Lineup

Forward lines

Tyler Toffoli – Nick Suzuki – Cole Caufield

Artturi Lehkonen – Phillip Danault – Brendan Gallagher

Paul Byron – Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Josh Anderson

Jake Evans – Eric Staal – Corey Perry

Defence pairings

Ben Chiarot – Shea Weber

Joel Edmundson – Jeff Petry

Erik Gustafsson – Jon Merrill

Goaltenders

Carey Price – Jake Allen

Scratches

Tomas Tatar, Michael Frolik, Charlie Lindgren, Brett Kulak, Alexander Romanov, Joel Armia

Black Aces

Alex Belzile, Laurent Dauphin, Lukas Vejdemo, Jesse Ylonen, Cale Fleury, Otto Leskinen, Xavier Ouellet, Cayden Primeau, Michael McNiven

Injuries

Jonathan Drouin (undisclosed)

COVID protocol

Dominique Ducharme

Game Report

Was it an omen when Brendan Gallagher fell stepping on to the ice for warmups? Shea Weber stepped on a puck too and took a shot during warmups that hit Carey Price near the throat. Maybe not a bad omen but things were not going according to script.

When the puck drop to open the Stanley Cup Finals, it was abundantly clear that the Lightning were well schooled and prepared. Lightning head coach Jon Cooper had done his homework, preparing a strategy to exploit the Canadiens vulnerabilities while taking away their strengths.

While isolating at home, Dominique Ducharme has taken every opportunity to remind us that as interim head coach that he is still in charge and that includes preparing the game plan. It appears that Ducharme was less thorough in his analysis and preparation.

While the focus of the Canadiens was to be physical with Tampa, the Lightning didn’t show any signs of being intimidated, dishing back the punishment. Hits in the game were recorded as a whopping 58-57 for the Canadiens. 

Cooper put in place the means to deconstruct the Canadiens attack. Montreal didn’t get anywhere near the slot area in the Tampa zone until the dying minutes of the game. High danger scoring chances favored the Lightning. 

The Lightning did a good job disrupting Canadiens offence at Tampa’s blueline, creating turnovers that three times led to goals for the home side. Tampa activated their defence far more than they have in three previous series, taking a page out of the playbook of the Golden Knights, who had generated offence from their rearguards.

Lightning skaters were helping Cooper to check off each item in the list including putting an end to the Canadiens successful penalty-killing streak stopped at 32 opportunities. Even while leading 4-1 Cooper sent out five forwards to score a power-play goal and eliminate the narrative about the perfect streak by Montreal penalty-killers.

The Lightning also managed to cover for their Vezina-caliber goaltender who did not look sharp for the first half of the game. It was a rather easy night for Andrei Vasilevskiy who only had to make 18 saves and few from scoring areas.

With last change, coach Cooper effectively controlling the matchups ensuring that the Canadiens checking line led by Phillip Danault was matched against his third line centred by Yanni Gourde. If that head-to-head matchup continues, the Canadiens should take advantage if Danault and company can play a more offensive game.

Although this game got out of reach midway through the third period, Carey Price was outstanding keeping his team closer than they deserved. Price made two sensational saves on Steven Stamkos and Tyler Johnson.

Up Next

This is now in the hands of the Canadiens coaching staff to assess how the Lightning were able to move so easily in the Montreal zone while preventing the Habs from generating high quality scoring chances in their own zone. The two teams meet again in Tampa on Wednesday night.

Plus

▲  Carey Price, Shea Weber, Josh Anderson, Corey Perry, Brendan Gallagher

Minus

▼  Erik Gustafsson, Jon Merrill, Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki, Tyler Toffoli, Joel Edmundson, Jeff Petry, Phillip Danault

Game Preview

Check out the game preview here: Canadiens @ Lightning: Entering the SCF Fray | HABS GAME 1 PREVIEW

The Numbers

Game Statistics
CANADIENS   LIGHTNING
19 Shots 27
50 Face-off % 50
0-for-2 Power Play 1-for-3
8 Penalty Minutes 6
58 Hits 57
44 Corsi For 36
Scoring Summary
FINAL 1 2 3 OT SO T
Canadiens (12-6) 0 1 0 1
Lightning (13-6) 1 1 3 5
Scorers Goalies
  • MTL: Chiarot (1)
  • TBL: Cernak (1), Gourde (6), Kucherov (6), Kucherov (7), Stamkos (8)-PPG
  • MTL: Price (L) 12-6 
  • TBL: Vasilevskiy (W) 13-6 

Stars of the Game

Official NHL Three Stars
  1. Nikita Kucherov  TBL
  2. Brayden Point  TBL
  3. Erik Cernak  TBL

Watch

Video Highlights

What Did They Say?

Post-game Quotes

Luke Richardson

  • “The positive is we didn’t play our best game, so we know we can get better. They’re always a talented team that plays well and definitely creates off mistakes that you make. By us playing better and managing the puck better, or maybe limiting those mistakes and creating a little bit more ourselves, we have a good way to go up. That’s going to be the positive out of it.”

Josh Anderson

  • “They’ve got some big defensemen back there. It’s not easy getting to the front of the net, but we’ve got to make it hard on them in some sort of way. Two turnovers on our part just increased their offense. They have a lot more confidence when we give them those opportunities.”

Ben Chiarot

  • “That’s a team that thrives on turnovers. They’re pretty quick coming back the other way every time there’s a turnover at their blue line. It’s definitely something we have to be aware of and make sure we’re a little smarter with the puck.”

Quotes courtesy of NHL.com

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