The Montreal Canadiens are aware of the opportunity before them as they prepare to host the Tampa Bay Lightning for Game 6 of their Stanley Cup playoff series on Friday.
Thanks to a 3-2 victory Wednesday night in Tampa for a 3-2 edge in the Eastern Conference first-round meeting, the young Canadiens have the opportunity to knock out the Lightning in the best-of-seven series.
“It’s going to be loud and going to be fun,” defenseman Kaiden Guhle said Thursday. “We’ll use the crowd’s energy to our advantage, but we’ve got to stay even-keeled. … Just gotta keep playing our game, not get nervous, not do too much.”
Montreal finished tied in points (106) with Tampa Bay during the regular season, placing behind due to the tiebreaker. The Canadiens were considered an underdog in this series, however, because of the vast amount of playoff experience on the Lightning’s roster.
Instead of being overwhelmed, the Canadiens have shown plenty of fortitude.
“It was such a great opportunity to go against a team who probably set the standard the last 10 years,” Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said. “We haven’t done anything yet, but it’s a challenge and still is a challenge. This is a veteran, talented group that is not going to go away easy, wasn’t going to give you anything for free.”
A huge key in Montreal’s edge has been goaltender Jakub Dobes, who has stood toe-to-toe against Tampa’s surefire hall-of-famer Andrei Vasilevskiy. Dobes stopped 38 shots in Wednesday’s win, 12 during the final three minutes while the Lightning pushed for the equalizer with an extra attacker.
“He’s a confident guy. He likes his big moments and wants his big moments” Guhle said. “You look at his first game last year, a shutout against the defending Stanley Cup champs. I think he lives for this. I think that’s what makes him so good.”
Although they trail the series, the Lightning have not exactly been outclassed. Through the five games, the Canadiens have scored a total of one more goal (14-13) and every result has been decided by a single tally.
Hurting Tampa Bay’s cause is the scoring struggles of stars Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point, who each have tallied only once, and the middling goaltending from Vasilevskiy and his .880 save percentage.
From a team perspective, one statistic stands out: Montreal has opened the scoring in four of the five games.
“Our starts, we’ve had a tough time, especially at the end of the regular season,” said Lightning coach Jon Cooper, whose squad won the lone game it scored first. “It’s not the recipe to have to keep chasing the game.”
With that in mind, the Lightning can look to rely on their experience to help extend the series and bring it back home for a deciding seventh game. A team that has accomplished as much as the Lightning over the last decade has overcome plenty of adversity along the way.
“This is nine straight years (of) making the playoffs,” Cooper said. “If you had a team that didn’t believe, that streak wouldn’t be going on right now.”
And now is the opportunity for a roster filled with players who have won multiple Stanley Cup titles (back to back in 2020 and 2021) to show its mettle. Otherwise, it will be a fourth consecutive year of being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.
“I think everyone personally, when Game 6 is over, will learn a lot about themselves,” said Tampa Bay forward Brandon Hagel, who has scored six of his club’s 13 goals in the series. “This team will learn a lot about themselves. There’s not much more to say. You’ve just got to kind of leave it up to us.”
