Montreal Canadiens: Breaking Down Game 1 Line By Line

Ah. The best time of the year. The Montreal Canadiens lost one game in the playoffs and the sky is falling. And now its our job to help console the knee jerk reactionaries saying that the Habs are done for after just one game. I am sure that I don’t need to remind everyone that Montreal lost the first game of the last series against Vegas. But, also, Tampa Bay also lost the first game of their Stanley Cup winning series last year.

It is much to early to tell, and Montreal is only one game behind in the series. At the same time, it is not the best position to be in, and I am sure that all Canadiens fans would have preferred the team to play better and have won the game. But it wasn’t all bad.

At the end of the first period it was 1-0 Lightning. By the end of the second it was 2-1. Those are both winnable games for Montreal, within striking distance at least. Definitely not the blowout that some people are purporting it to be. After the 3-1 goal, Montreal lost their composure as the game was seemingly out of reach at that point, and a lot of goals went in that probably shouldn’t have, and the Stamkos goal came in the definition of garbage time.

But just looking at the stats doesn’t tell the entire story. Just because Montreal lost 5-1 doesn’t mean that the entire team was terrible, or even bad. For that, we have to look at this thing line for line and see who did good, who did bad, and what everyone could do better.

Line 1 – Brendan Gallagher – Phillip Danault – Artturi Lehkonen or The Terror of the Last Change

Phillip Danault has been excellent this entire playoffs. He wins faceoffs and stops the best that the opponents have to offer offensively. The only problem is that he has to be on the ice against the opponent’s best to do that. And that is not what happened in Game 1.

For those that do not know, home ice advantage does not just mean getting to play in front of a huge crowd of people cheering for you. On home ice you get something called last change. It is to prevent coaches from stopping the game and daring the other one to flinch and put out their players first. So the home team before every face off gets to see what line the away team is putting out and plan accordingly.

So, whenever Luke Richardson set out the shutdown line of Gallagher – Danault – Lehkonen, Jon Cooper responded with his third line of Barclay Goodrow – Yanni Gourde – Blake Coleman, a rough and tumble group that specialises in the cycle: keeping the puck in the opponent’s end and wearing you down.

And that is what they did. While the Danault line did not get scored on, they all ended up with a +/- of 0, they did not really accomplish much else. This line only scored one point each in the last series, but that was acceptable, as they held the Vegas’ top line to a similar stat line. But if they are not holding the other team’s top line down they will have to provide worth in other ways, namely offensively.

Danault and Lehkonen have never been offensively inclined, but Gallagher does have a lot of skill on that end of the ice, having had a couple of 30 goal seasons. But asking Gallagher to provide the offence for this line is a tall order. It is hard to produce offence when you are the sole provider of said offence. But something has to give, and either they have to produce offensively, or find a way to get out against the Lightning’s top line.

It seems like Montreal and their coaching staff have become a bit complacent in the matchup game. Winnipeg and Vegas both had good offences, but they are more deep than top heavy. Monteal’s overall defensive excellence allowed them to play any of their lines against any of the opponent’s lines. But think back on the Toronto series, where whenever Matthews got on the ice, Montreal’s forwards scrambled to get Danault on with him. Richardson and Ducharme may have to return to that thinking against Point and Kucherov for Montreal to have success.

Line 3 – Josh Anderson – Jesperi Kotkaniemi – Paul Byron or The Best Line

And it wasn’t really close. I expect this line to open the next game in order to get some life into Montreal’s legs early into the game. Josh Anderson was Montreal’s best forward this game, and he used every aspect of his game in order to get to the Lightning. Early on, Anderson was throwing his weight around and finishing every check. He even had a dangerous looking run in the second that Vasilevskiy read perfectly and gloved.

Paul Byron used his speed to create some chances as well, and this line was one of the most dangerous looking lines during the whole game. They were on the ice for the sole Montreal goal, and was instrumental at creating the havoc in front of the net that led to the goal. Jesperi Kotkaniemi even got an assist on the goal.

Which is ironic, because Kotkaniemi was the weakest of the three. He was not awful, or even bad I would say. He just seemed a little starstruck, and reverted back to the form of part of his rookie year and his sophomore year. He is a gangly guy with long legs and arms that make him hard to skate and play against. However, he can seem like he hasn’t grown into his limbs quite yet. With that comes a lack of a good centre of gravity, and it becomes easy to knock him off the puck.

And that is what it looked like in Game 1. Late in the game, when it was already out of reach, Kotkaniemi was knocked off the puck, but came back and showed some fight and frustration. It could be seen as a good or bad thing. It is a show of passion from the KotkaKid, and the penalty did not change much. It shows that Kotkaniemi won’t be pushed around, but he will have to make sure in Game 2 to keep his cool and keep it legal.

This was Montreal’s best line, and look for it to be a momentum changer in Game 2. Hopefully one of Anderson’s front net charges, that always look dangerous, but have rarely resulted in goals will work out.

Line 4 Corey Perry – Jake Evans – Eric Staal or Missing One Crucial Ingredient

Joel Armia was placed on COVID protocol just before the series, and the fear was that he would be forced to miss the series. Those fears were assuaged as Armia and the Canadiens learned that he would be able to play, if he could only get to Tampa in time. He was on the warm-up skate, but his place on the fourth line was taken by Jake Evans, who was returning after being concussed in the first game against Winnipeg.

The problem is that Evans and Armia are very different players. It goes without saying that Armia is a far more offensively capable than Evans, but there are not many forwards more defensively conservative than Evans.

And with that can come some opportunities for offence. If his teammates know that he will always be back defensively, then that allows them to go all out offensively, and not have to worry about coming back defensively as hard. The thing is, you have to have the right guys that can take advantage. Corey Perry and Eric Staal are not exactly those guys.

Looking at Caufield’s powerplay goal in Game 5 against Vegas, Perry was given a breakaway pass, and the commentator mused that Perry was gassed at the end of a shift. But he wasn’t exactly on the ice for a long shift. Staal is not too much faster. Perry and Staal are players that thrive on the cycle. But the problem is that you need all three forwards in deep for a cycle to work, and that is not exactly Evans’ M.O.

The cycle works when the forwards support each other, give the puck handler easy passes, and outnumber the down low defenders. This with the big size that Armia provides made this line a formidable force behind the net, and led to many shifts that at least swung the momentum in Montreal’s favour, or ended up in the back of the net.

Without Armia’s size and speed (he’s no speedster, but can look it skating alongside Perry and Staal), the line looked lost, and was not able to create those scoring chances and momentum swings that they had in the past. I do not know if Evans draws back into the line-up, he didn’t have a bad game, but Armia should retake his rightful spot between Perry and Staal.

Defence Pairing 1 – Shea Weber – Ben Chiarot – or The Joy of Putting the Puck on the Net

What a strange place to get one puck into the net. Ben Chiarot, who had not had a point on this playoff run, took a shot from the point that hit at least 2 people before sliding past a hapless Vasilevskiy. Now, a big part of that was the havoc being wrecked by Anderson and Byron in front of the net, but it holds an important lesson. Get the puck on the net and good things will happen.

Montreal had 2 penalties, and according to the graphic during the game, they took only 1 shot, which occurred in the second penalty. Montreal was outshot in the game 27-19, and they are going to have to get more shots on the net. They likely are not going to outshoot Tampa, but many times pucks were at the blueline, and no shot came, and the possession ended with no offensive chance.

You cannot really say that about Shea Weber. Weber played an aggressive offensive game, and even was rewarded with a breakaway that was stopped by Vasilevskiy. This was his first Stanley Cup Final game, and it looked like he was champing at the bit to get going. Weber played his physical game, and at times in the late game he crossed the line. He was fined for slashing Kucherov, and say what you want about Kucherov’s flopping antics, but a slash was a slash, and it was a hard slash.

But it was not all sunshine and roses. While Chiarot showed Montreal that putting the puck on net is a good thing, he also showed that for Tampa. Kucherov put the bobbling puck in front of the net, and Chiarot tried to knock it away with his hand. It bounced all over, including off of Chiarot’s stick and into the net. It is a messy play that Montreal cannot afford in their defensive zone, and something that absolutely cannot be done against Tampa’s top line.

But that wasn’t the only defensive gaffe Montreal had.

Defensive Pairing 2 – Joel Edmundson – Jeff Petry  or The Importance of Coverage

Montreal has a great record when scoring first. When scoring second, not so much. It is much of the same story with Tampa Bay. Both these teams enjoy scoring first, and will generally win when they score first. That makes the first goals in the series that much more important. Well, Tampa got the first goal, and it was kind of Jeff Petry’s fault.

The goal was an amazing tip in front of the net on the rush. The problem was that the goal-scorer, Erik Cernak, a defenceman, walked right down the middle of the ice without being picked up until it was too late. It was a common theme from the Vegas series that when the opponents activate their defence for offence, Montreal’s d-men couldn’t handle it. It was a similar story in Game 1 of the Final, where Petry was playing too wide in the defensive zone, and couldn’t close the gap on Cernak quick enough.

To be fair, the pass and tip were executed perfectly. But if Petry was in better position to stop the open man in the middle, that puck doesn’t go in, and we might be talking about a different game. Not so different to think that Montreal could win the game, Tampa Bay did out play them, but it could have been a steal like Game 3 of the Vegas series.

Petry and Edmundson did not have a great game on the stat sheet, both finishing with a -2. It is hard to finish with a positive score in a 5-1 loss. Montreal’s defence needs to pay more attention to detail, like their play in front of the net and closing in on open players as soon as they can if they are going to survive against Tampa’s offence.

Defence Pairing 3 – Jon Merrill – Erik Gustafsson or A House Divided is Strong

Montreal doesn’t have a third pairing in the traditional sense. The fifth and sixth defensemen on Montreal are Gustafsson and Merrill, but you will never ever see them play together. Instead, they play with one of the four Clydesdales, and Gustafsson gets time on the powerplay.

Gustafsson didn’t have a great game. He had barely any time before getting on the first powerplay and it showed. If he is used mostly for the powerplay, which he is, then he better be good on the PP, which he was not.

Merrill was his usual invisible self, which is good for a defensive third pairing defenceman. Merrill isn’t asked to do much, and he doesn’t do much but play fairly responsibly.

What Everyone Can Do Better

Line 1: You have two options. Either shut down Kucherov and Point or put up some points on offence. This line did neither last game. A bigger focus must be put on getting them out against Tampa’s #1 line.

Line 2: For the love of God get them away from Point and Kucherov. The youngsters got exposed in a big way and got little in the way of offence of their oen.

Line 3: Keep playing physical and fast. Try to get more pucks on net and good things will happen.

Line 4: Leap back into the capable arms of Armia and do what you have done in every series so far. Provide offence and momentum.

Defence Pairing 1: Clean up in front of the net and don’t give the forwards any room.

Defence Pairing 2: Play tight to the man and don’t let the puck into the middle.

Defence Pairing 3: Start to play better on the powerplay and get off the ice on time. A couple of times there have been opportunities for these two to get off and they haven’t. They haven’t been burned yet, but that won’t stay that way for long.

If these things happen, Montreal has a good chance in Game 2. Montreal has prided themselves in their adaptability, and have promised to come out better this coming game, and they have given us no indication this playoff run that that won’t happen.