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Lightning vs. Canadiens: Game Two Recap |
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The sky might be falling. Unable to rebound from their dismal outing in game one, the Tampa Bay Lightning dropped a second straight home game on Friday night to start their Eastern Conference Quarterfinal matchup with the Montreal Canadiens.
If you thought that things couldn’t get worse for the Lightning after game one, you were proven wrong tonight. The Bolts were once again outplayed, outcoached, and outscored in a rather one-sided contest. The final score was 4-1, but the number that really matters is the 0-2 record that Tampa will bring to Montreal. The fat lady is currently working on some vocal exercises, and man is she sounding good.
In the pregame blog I made sure to highlight Lightning coach Jon Cooper’s opportunity to establish himself as one of the league’s best coaches this year. The great playoff coaches know how to make in-game adjustments and postgame adjustments that can help to turn the tides of a hockey game. For at least a few minutes to start game two, it looked like Cooper had figured out a way to beat Montreal’s coverage. Perhaps the best evidence of this can be seen on the first period’s possession chart.
Note how the Bolts were able to jump out of the gate and generate some early possession. All signs were positive, at least for a moment or two. However, just as said above, successful playoff coaches know how to make adjustments. Michel Therrien did exactly that. The Canadiens turned a slow start into a second consecutive masterful defensive performance. Tampa struggled to get a sniff in the offensive zone. Give credit to Therrien and every single Montreal skater for that.
Of particular interest to me is the fact that Montreal was able to silence Steven Stamkos in a way that few teams have been able to over the years. He was, if we’re being totally honest, invisible. The Canadiens didn’t give him an inch of space, and so his speed never became a factor. The proof is in the pudding, as Montreal didn’t let Stamkos generate anything when the game was on the line.
My own sarcastic take on things is a little bit more to the point.
Now let’s get to the game itself.
After battling through an evenly matched first frame, the Canadiens took advantage of things early on in the second. Shockingly, they did it with a power play goal. Much has been made of Montreal’s struggles with the man advantage, but they converted on an early second period hooking call to make it 1-0. David Desharnais tipped home a well-placed PK Subban shot, and just like that the energy was sucked out of the Tampa Bay Times Forum.
The Canadiens doubled up their lead when Rene Bourque scored his first of two on the night at the 10:35 mark of that middle frame. The enigmatic forward made both Eric Brewer and Sami Salo look like fools, as he cut right to the front of the net and poked the puck past a sprawling Anders Lindback. At 2-0, realists probably got the sense that the game was over. Carey Price looked ridiculously good, and the Bolts looked mind-numbingly bad; it was hard to believe that Tampa would be able to score one, let alone two.
While the Lightning, as a team, certainly deserved to be down 2-0 (at least) through two periods, one guy who didn’t deserve that fate was Lindback. He made some key saves early in the hockey game, and once again gave the skaters in front of him a chance to win. Disappointingly, but not shockingly, they failed to pull out a victory for him.
The night got worse for the big Swedish goaltender, as he was pulled midway through the third period after giving up the 3-0 goal to Brendan Gallagher. That meant that Kristers Gudlevskis, otherwise known as “that Latvian kid,” was thrown into the fray. For a fleeting moment, maybe you thought that Gudlevskis would be able to repeat his Olympic heroics and match Price save for save. That didn’t happen. Only minutes after Lindback got the hook, Gudlevskis got caught way out of position and allowed Rene Bourque to score a wrap-around goal that made it 4-0.
Teddy Purcell scored a garbage time goal for the Bolts to make it 4-1, but it wasn’t nearly enough. The team was brutal, and undoubtedly deserved to lose the hockey game.
It will be interesting to see what Jon Cooper does with the goaltending for game three in Montreal. Nobody is pinning these first two losses on Lindback, but it might make sense to change things up and throw Gudlevskis in to see what happens. The reality is that the Bolts are on life support right now. What they’ve been doing hasn’t worked. Change might.
Even so, let’s not pretend that any goaltender would have changed the outcome in the first two games at the Forum. Not even Ben Bishop could have salvaged this sinking ship. This may sound ridiculous, but the Bishop injury has proven to be rather inconsequential so far. One of my Twitter followers, The Hockey Hitman, had this to say about it.
He’s not wrong. Goaltending hasn’t been a problem at all.
I’ve already made reference to the unfortunate point that Jon Cooper was once again outcoached. After having so much success during the regular season, Tampa’s bench boss doesn’t seem to have the answers here in the post-season. Of course, it’s still early. Who knows what tricks he might pull out of the hat when the series resumes in Montreal. Cooper is a rookie NHL coach; this is a learning experience for him too. That being said, Michel Therrien has had his number through two games.
While the road ahead for the Lightning doesn’t necessarily contain certain death, it does come with its fair share of challenges. The team played Ben Bishop and its other best players so much down the stretch to secure home ice. Well, they just went 0-2 at the Forum to start this series. That advantage has been thrown out the window; the Canadiens hold all the cards now.
Simply put, it’s going to be tough for the Bolts to come back in this one. Tough doesn’t necessarily mean impossible though.
For those of you who don’t remember, the Carolina Hurricanes lost their first two games on home ice to the Montreal Canadiens to start the 2006 playoffs. Last I checked, they survived and went on to hoist some shiny trophy a few weeks later. Tough, but not impossible.
Game three of this first round series will take place on Sunday night at the Bell Centre. The Bolts don’t have much time to regroup, but they’ll likely need to if they don’t want to end up in a 0-3 hole. Some of that regrouping may have started tonight, as TSN’s Ryan Rishaug noted that the players held a closed door meeting following play.
As I sign off, I’ll leave you with this. Thanks for reading.
Ottawa Senators Blogger • 
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