Montreal Canadiens vs Tampa Bay Lightning Stanley Cup Final Storylines
It’s official, the Montreal Canadiens will be facing the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Stanley Cup Final.
Although I was hoping to see them face the New York Islanders, the defending champions did not make it easy for them.
The Canadiens are huge underdogs in this series (now even bigger underdogs as when they reached the playoffs), and that is a storyline of its own. Will the underdogs be able to beat the defending champs? Or will the Bolts easily win against the Habs?
This leads us to the second storyline: the defending champs vs the last Canadian team to win the cup 28 years ago. The Canadiens have been playing with everything they have, wearing their blood and sweat proudly, literally – remember Corey Perry’s nose and Jeff Petry’s bloodshot eyes?
On the other hand, it can be argued that with Tampa’s cap loophole, things are a bit easier for them. But they’re technically not breaking any rules and they can’t be discredited because of that. They just have been playing incredibly well.
In my opinion, it will all come down to which special unit will be better: the Lightning’s powerplay or the Canadiens’ penalty kill?
The Lightning’s powerplay stands at 37.7 per cent, which is remarkable, but the Canadiens’ penalty kill is almost perfect, at 93.5 per cent.
As Steven Stamkos said last night, both teams are getting “the best team [they’ve] played against so far,” and the only question remains which one will be the best between the two?
The last storyline of the series is the Mikhail Sergachev – Jonathan Drouin trade dating back from 2017. Although Drouin is on long-term injury reserve and Sergachev only played four games with the Canadiens, it was (and arguably, still is) a big trade, and people will be paying extra attention to Sergachev’s performance against the team that drafted him.
dark. Next. Canadiens Going to Stanley Cup Final for First Time Since 1993
Game 1 will start at 8 p.m. EST on Monday and Game 2 at the same time on Wednesday, both in Tampa Bay. The two teams will then head to Montreal for Games 3 and 4.