CANADIENS
Montreal

LIGHTNING
Tampa Bay

Game Notes:

The Canadiens power-play is dreadful.  Currently they are ranked 26th in the league.  But they aren’t lighting the lamp 5-on-5 either, only marginally better at 20th.  The Habs struggle to score period.

But strangely, that has caused some to spin the narrative that fans need not be concerned about the Canadiens feckless performance with the man advantage. They contend that a weak power-play doesn’t hinder a team’s chances to compete for a Cup.

Tough to defend such a statement after a game like tonight.

The Canadiens came out of the gate with some jump in this game.  Both teams did.  Right from the opening faceoff there was a quick pace.  Only 2:21 into the game Brenden Morrow high-sticked Brian Flynn, ending the night for the Canadiens forward.  Morrow was assessed a double minor.

In the next four minutes, the Habs power-play managed just three shots on goal, two of them from more than 50 feet away.  Momentum was handed to Tampa Bay.

Just a few minutes later, Greg Pateryn was sent to the box for high-sticking Nikita Kucherov. It took the Lightning just 38 seconds to capitalize as Valtteri Filppula scored with the man advantage, his shot deflecting off Andrei Markov.

The ineffectiveness of Canadiens power-play and the success by the home squad changed the direction of the game.

After Max Pacioretty’s mind-numbing pass to Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman splitting the duo of Tom Gilbert and Jeff Petry, Montreal found themselves down 3-0.  From the 10 minute mark in the second period, the Habs played well, scored twice but the damage was done.

It’s unrealistic to spot a team as good as the Lightning with a three goal lead and expect to make a comeback. The Canadiens made a valiant effort after spending the entire first period firing pucks into the white lightning bolt of Ben Bishop’s jersey, they ran out of racetrack even though they ramped up the intensity of their play.

Tomas Plekanec was the Habs best forward.  When the Canadiens needed offense, Plekanec centred Pacioretty and P.A. Parenteau.  Lars Eller found himself back at centre and had a very good game with three hits and four shots on goal; only Pacioretty had more (5) of the Montreal forwards.

On the back end, the Canadiens struggled with the speed and aggressive forecheck of the Lightning, particularly the pairing of Gilbert and Petry.

Right now, Tampa Bay is a better team at every position except goal. And that includes coaching. The Lightning defense has been upgraded since last year’s playoffs. They are big and mobile, making zone exits cleanly and crisply. Tampa plays a structured system that uses high intensity puck pursuit to control the neutral and offensive zones.  And they have three lines that can score.

A common complaint is that the Canadiens don’t have offensive balance down their lineup.  One of the reasons for this is because it’s exactly as Michel Therrien wants it to be.  In this game, 80 per cent of David Desharnais’ shifts began in the offensive zone.  By contrast, only 11 per cent offensive zone starts for Lars Eller.

And there is evidence that the struggling power-play is fixable.  It’s clear that the first unit is unwilling to drive to the goal nor create traffic allowing the opposition penalty-kill to focus on the points.  Eller had just 39 seconds of power-play time but it was he and Alex Galchenyuk who provided a net presence allowing Plekanec a shot from down low that banked in off Bishop.

Therrien has declared that he isn’t interested in changes to his system or strategy but the Habs have now lost six of eight games in March.

Plus / Minus

▲     Carey Price, Tomas Plekanec, Andrei Markov, Lars Eller, Brandon Prust, Brendan Gallagher

▼     Devante Smith-Pelly, Jeff Petry, Tom Gilbert, David Desharnais

1.  Steven Stamkos  TBL
2.  Tomas Plekanec  MTL
3.  Victor Hedman  TBL

• “We played a solid game, we were engaged and hard a good start. But we made a huge mistake on the second goal and they had a lucky bounce on their power play goal but those things happen. We had tons of quality scoring chances but to win hockey games you need some breaks, tonight we didn’t have any breaks.“

Alex Galchenyuk

• “It’s a game of hockey, 82 games, some games you get bounces, some games it goes against you. You’ve just got to play the system right and go out there and compete. We didn’t play a full 60 minutes tonight and that cost us.”

Brendan Gallagher

• “Even if you get back in the game, you never feel better when you lose. At the same time, I think you can understand how we’ve had success. It took a while for us to get one on this guy. Once we got one, it felt like we built up a little confidence. We were able to do the same things we’ve always done, throw pucks and just get people to the net. We were close to getting another goal by doing the same thing, so it’s just the way this team has to play to score goals.”
• “I thought this team did a good job of battling back. Pricey was going to shut the door. You knew they weren’t going to get any more goals. He was going to give us a chance to battle back. I thought we did that. We’ve just got to do a little bit more and fight a little harder. It’s good that we’re getting tested like this going into the playoffs. It’s nice for us to get our battle level up, to get our compete level up. It’s only going to be beneficial for us.”

Carey Price

• “He plays with tenacity every game. He doesn’t drop the mitts very often, but he plays a gritty game. At some point, you hit a boiling point. We saw that with Gally. We love the effort that he brings every night.”

Lightning coach Jon Cooper

• “We had our legs tonight. Right out of the game I thought we started strong. To kill off that double-minor early and that save [Ben] Bishop made on [Alex] Galchenyuk…we kind of took it from there.”