Montreal Canadiens vs Tampa Bay Lightning Game 1 Preview

The Stanley Cup Final starts tonight with Game 1 between the Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning at 8 p.m. EST.

The only suspected change for the Canadiens was Joel Armia’s spot being taken by Jake Evans when Armia was placed on COVID-19 protocols yesterday. But he joined the team in Tampa today and is not on the team’s COVID absences list, so I’m expecting him to play instead of Evans, after all, he hasn’t played since Game 1 of the second round against the Winnipeg Jets.

As for the Lightning, no lineup changes are expected. Though it looked like Nikita Kucherov was injured during Game 6 against the New York Islanders, he denied any injury yesterday.

The projected lineup for the Canadiens is:

Toffoli – Suzuki – Caufield
Lehkonen – Danault – Gallagher
Byron – Kotkaniemi – Anderson
Armia – Staal – Perry

Chiarot – Weber
Edmundson – Petry
Gustafsson – Merrill

Price

And here’s the projected lineup for the Lightning:

Palat – Point – Kucherov
Killorn – Cirelli – Stamkos
Goodrow – Gourde – Coleman
Maroon – Johnson – Colton

Hedman – Rutta
McDonagh – Cernak
Sergachev – Savard

Vasilevskiy

It will be, yet another, battle of the goaltenders and special units.

Carey Price vs Andrei Vasilevskiy.

The best powerplay vs the best penalty kill.

Some key players for the Canadiens tonight will be Arturri Lehkonen, Nick Suzuki, and Josh Anderson.

After scoring the OT winner that sent the team to the final, Lehkonen will probably look to do more and his speed will be a big help against the big strong Lightning.

Suzuki’s playmaking and defensive skills will also be huge to help shut down the Lightning’s top lines. Suzuki, Tyler Toffoli, and Cole Caufield have shown good chemistry and offensive production, and that will be crucial in order to match up against a team as offensively efficient as the Lightning.

Josh Anderson’s physicality, size, and speed will also play a big part in pressuring and frustrating the opponent, and that should be fun to watch.

And finally, let’s not forget the importance of the fourth line and everything they’ve done so far and what they will likely keep doing in this final step.