These teams combined for 13 goals against each other in the regular season (11, if you don't count the shootout), so Dale Weise scoring an overtime winner, giving the Canadiens a 5-4 edge in game one of what's supposed to be one of the lowest scoring, tightest series of the first round of the playoffs, was entirely unpredictable.
Also unpredictable--Carey Price's wayward performance after a season of shutting the door no matter what the circumstance. It was an inauspicious night for Montreal's MVP, and it was bordering on a heartbreaking one until the Canadiens hit overtime and Price asserted himself to keep them in the game. He got a bit of help too, as Josh Gorges and Francis Bouillon took Tampa's potential heroism out of the equation with desperation saves of their own.
It was a dominant performance from the Canadiens, who took advantage of a shell-shocked Tampa team filled with players taking in their first playoff experience. The nerves were apparent throughout the Lightning's side, and predictably, it showed the most on goaltender Anders Lindback.
Tampa was more than opportunistic. It seemed every Canadiens mistake in the game--and there weren't that many--ended up behind Price. The score was hardly indicative of how the game was played, and the storyline would've been dramatically different had Tampa found a way to capitalize on one more chance.
Instead, the Canadiens accomplish their goal of wrestling home-ice advantage away, for now. They come into game two with the confidence of scoring four even-strength goals and one shorthanded, contributions from all of their lines, and a defensive performance largely contingent on puck possession and offensive pressure.
The Habs have a bit of work to do in the defensive zone, and they can iron out certain coverage blemishes with some good video sessions, but they got a win out of Price, even when he was very far from his best game.
To a certain degree this effort was nearly parallel to the one the Canadiens put forth in their first game of last year's playoffs against Ottawa. This time around, there were no devastating injuries, and they found themselves on the right side of the scoreboard--not allowing a tremendous effort to be wasted.
The chances that Price plays worse than that are negligible. If overtime was any kind of indication of where he'll be at the start of game two, a like-effort from the team could see them push this back to Montreal with a stranglehold.
As for the Lightning, they aren't going to play much worse than that either, but it's hard to imagine Lindback rebounding the way they'll need him to, to ensure they take this series back to Montreal with a win under their belts.
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1) Daniel Briere had a few great performances this season; multi-goal performances. He had plenty of not-so great performances. But from the start of this one, to the end of it, Briere was his playoff self (which is another way of saying that he was exceptional). He was a threat on nearly every shift he took. He was engaged in all three zones. And he was the Canadiens' best player when it counted most, in overtime, creating several scoring chances for himself before giving Weise the greatest gift of his life.
A departure on Weise for a second. This guy came to Montreal with a bit of a chip on his shoulder. Not hard enough for John Tortarella's lineup on certain occasions this season. Not hard enough to make it from fourth line to third in Vancouver, even when he was playing his best hockey. Traded for Raphael Diaz.
There's got to be some variety of coincidence that the Canadiens have won a vast majority of their games with Weise in the lineup, but Weise has left nothing to the hockey Gods with his effort. He's a gamer. He can skate. His awareness is solid. He's proving himself indispensable. So how can you not feel good for a guy like that--to make his place in the most dramatic fashion?
2) When you consider how this game started for Lars Eller, and then how it ended, it was practically a microcosm of his season, but in reverse.
He was lost, puck-shy, brain-dead turnover Eller in the first four shifts he took with Gionta and Bourque, and then he was strong, physical, smart, talented Eller for the rest of the game.
Brilliant play to Brian Gionta for the Canadiens' second goal of the hockey game. Brilliant goal on a 2-on-2 rush--a goal that can't happen without Rene Bourque's net drive. If Eller can be this guy for the rest of the series (for the rest of the playoffs), it adds a whole new dimension to the hockey team.
3) Brandon Prust made the kind of mistakes you'd expect from a player that missed a few weeks of hockey, coming back before shaking out the rust in a regular season game. Through three periods, he made the kind of mistakes that could've prompted Michel Therrien to park him on the bench.
And then overtime started.
Prust, Tomas Plekanec, and Brendan Gallagher found what they were looking for in the extra frame, and their work out there set things up pretty well for the Canadiens to keep coming in waves, as they did. Plekanec naturally redeemed the other two through the first three periods.
Speaking of mistakes, a lot of people hung it on Mike Weaver for the game-tying goal that Stamkos tapped in, care of Alex Killorn (we'll get to those two in a minute).
Let's get things straight. Gallagher had Weaver covered at the line. Weaver's job was to pressure the puck in that situation. The problem was, Weaver didn't win the pinch, and Gallagher stood there watching, hoping that Weaver would win it. As Killorn broke up the ice, taking advantage of Gallagher's mistake, Markov read that Gallagher wasn't going to catch up. Gallagher's second mistake was not reacting to Markov's switch, leaving Stamkos with a gaping net to score his second goal of the game, and it could've been an absolute back-breaker.
Regardless, if you're going to make that pinch at that stage of the game, you have to win it. You can't risk a 2-on-2 situation, with one of your forwards having to play the role of a defenseman. And you can't, as a forward, get caught watching the play, and then miss the assignment completely once you've managed to recover your stride. It was the worst goal of the hockey game from Montreal's side, and it had nothing to do with Price.
4) Ondrej Palat left the game in the second period after a collision with P.K. Subban, and he didn't return. Who knows what his status is moving forward. But the Lightning gave Montreal a glimpse of one player--not named Stamkos--that they should be most concerned with: Killorn.
This guy has the speed, the size and the power to be a dominant forward in this league. And at 24, his immediate future is going to prove that. He plays a heavy game, and he can shoot and pass the puck as well as anyone not named Stamkos on that team.
Speaking of Stamkos, he had two great opportunities to score in the game. He took advantage of both of them. There's no doubt that Price could've stopped the first one. But again, there were a couple of big-league mistakes that gave Stamkos the ice to work with.
I bet if Prust had a do-over, he'd have stepped in front of Stamkos in the neutral zone and taken a penalty. He was caught standing still, and his effort to get in Stamkos' way fell far too short. Emelin was caught hoping Prust would do something to slow Stamkos down, and he didn't close the gap well at all. And Price was off his angle on the shot, regardless of how good the shot was.
Nonetheless, Stamkos was as good as you'd expect him to be, and he was almost good enough to steal the game away for the Lightning.
5) A lot of these players on Tampa's side--all these playoff rookies--won in the AHL before coming to the NHL together. They won under Jon Cooper. But the Stanley Cup playoffs are a different animal.
And you know what, if the Lightning players looked nervous and a bit out of their element, so did Cooper.
He had the advantage of setting the matchups, though he often got caught with Plekanec shadowing Stamkos, and Therrien was able to get Markov or Subban's pair against him throughout the game. He had a player in Cedrik Paquette, centering the fourth line in his 3rd NHL game, who somehow got on the ice for three or four shifts in overtime, and he was completely lost on the play that ended the game, off Weise's stick.
And his post-game comments were chalk-full of long-winded rationalization and hope--as he went on and on trying to erase/alter certain storylines from the papers, blogs, video recaps etc... Don't get me wrong; he was earnest and genuine, but he may look at that press conference and think to himself that it'd have been smarter to internalize most of those thoughts instead of feeding the beast.
Cooper had such an exceptional year that we should expect a much better performance from him in game two. But there wasn't any doubt about who took the coaching matchup in game one, and Cooper's performance was a mirror image of what his team offered.
6) What did you think of Bouilon?
I thought he was great too.
7) Michael Bournival played the least of any Montreal Canadien on the night, and yet, his impact on the game was tremendous. His intensity, his skating, his physicality lend well to him being a good playoff performer, and he was a perfect example of the type of depth Montreal boasts.
8) Max Pacioretty, David Desharnais and Thomas Vanek aren't a perfect line on both ends of the ice, but when they have possession, when they have an inch of room to skate with the puck, they're success is taking advantage of open space.
Desharnais' give and go with Vanek for the go-ahead fourth Canadiens goal is a perfect example of how lethal this line is. Give Vanek a scoring chance that he'll have to wrestle away in a race for the puck, and you just know there's a high probability he's going to do it.
Same with Pacioretty. Vanek gave him a loose puck to chase in front of Lindback, and Pacioretty beat Lindback, only to find the post.
Give these three space in the offensive zone, and they'll cycle you into oblivion.
The Lightning showed no signs of having the right combo to shut these guys down for an entire game, and though they only found one of the Canadiens five goals on the night, they opened things up for the lines behind them.
9) Radko Gudas is expected to be a difference maker in this series. He is Tampa's most physical threat on the back end. But he was a mess in game one, and Plekanec made that very clear on more than one occasion.
10) P.K. Subban wasn't as good as he should've been, but he wasn't as bad as some are suggesting. He still made a bunch of plays that led to quality chances, and he made a few defensive ones that helped keep the pressure off a struggling Price.
Where you'd like to see him take it to the next level is on the powerplay, and when the Canadiens get more opportunities, he's gotta shoot no matter who's in the lane. He can do so much damage with that shot, and someone's got to be in his ear telling him to do it.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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