In this crappy season, one line and one line only has been a constant threat for the Habs, the first line pivoted by Danault with Tatar and Gallagher on the wings so it was easy to figure out that things wouldn't go very well tonight without them. The injury Tatar sustained against the Islanders was serious enough to get him a plane ticket to Montreal today and it turns out that even the most courageous of warriors can bend the knee to the flew. Their absence meant that the Canadiens had to go with 11 forwards and 7 blue liners tonight and that Claude Julien had quite an headache and an evening of line juggling ahead.
La formation projetée du match de ce soir face au Lightning. 📝
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) March 5, 2020
The projected lines for tonight's game against the Lightning.#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/CeG9YFDKgx
It took 49 seconds for the Habs to mess up their defensive coverage and for Victor Hedman to make them pay dearly for it. Let's face it, Price should have had that shot but it mattered very little since a loss was definitely in the cards. Alex Killorn then scored another one to make it 2-0 and for some reason, you can bet that the Lightning fans do not get the same feeling of dread as Canadiens' fans do when their team takes a two goal lead. Any Friends fans in here? When that goal went in, I was reminded of a classic Monica Gellar quote: "42 to 21, like the turkey Ross is done!"...it's sad but against a team such as Tampa and a goaltender who has the Canadiens' number, it was painfully obvious at that stage that the Habs were done. No need to get out the clichés such as "it's not over 'till it's over" and "anything can happen" we've got Marc Bergevin to provide those when he talks about the playoffs so we don't need to hear them in regular season games as well.
The RDS talking heads will tell you that Montreal played better than the Lightning in the second and it's not completely false. I mean they did dominate puck possession and put 12 shots on goal while Tampa only managed 6 on Price. Problem is though, score wise, only Tampa managed to net another goal. To make matters worst, that goal came in the last minute of the period, a definite punch to the gut. Try as the Habs might though, you won't score on a great goalie with ordinary shots and that pretty much sums up their effort tonight. There was a mildly interesting incident at the end of the 2nd period when Tampa players dared to touch Joel Armia and Nick Suzuki. Result? Both Ben Chiarot and Shea Weber took exception and as a result, they would both start the 3rd in the penalty box. For Weber, it was a 5 minute stay in the box after he dropped the gloves to fight Sergachev and I've got to admit that the youngster handled himself very well. I'd also add that Weber was lucky on a swing and a miss not to punch the board and hurt himself. That would have been the icing on the cake if this awful season.
As for the 3rd, well, it really was nothing to write home about. In fact, it was pretty much just more of the same with a lot of Habs shots but a lack of finish. To be fair though, when 8 of your 20 players have spent time in the AHL, you're not exactly using your best line-up. In the last few minutes, Ben Chiarot when he was hit after shooting and bought himself a ticket to the locker room. Victor Hedman took advantage of the power play to score his second of the game and make it 4-0.
All in all, it's best to forget this game and look ahead to Saturday and the game against the Panthers. Hopefully, by then, Gallagher has gotten over the flew and Montreal can at least ice 12 forwards. Hang in there Habs fans, only 13 games left before the very long summer of speculation about contracts, draft picks and firing can begin...