Canadiens: Lineup Changes Needed To Spark Miracle Comeback

The Montreal Canadiens fell to the brink of elimination for the first time since the opening round of the playoffs.

Back in round one, the Habs were down 3-1 to the (supposed) powerhouse Toronto Maple Leafs. They were able to fight their way back thanks to a couple of overtime wins and a stellar defensive effort in Game 7.

Now, they are going to have to pull off a far more difficult task.

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First of all, they aren’t down 3-1, they are on the ropes after three consecutive losses to begin the series and will need to reel off four straight victories to win the Stanley Cup. Also, they are playing a far more deep and talented team than they have in previous rounds. The Lightning are on the brink of winning their second straight Stanley Cup and amazingly have not lost two games in a row in either postseason.

So, a team that never loses twice in a row has to be beat four times in a row for the Canadiens to win the Stanley Cup.

That’s going to take a miracle. Or Covid. If the Lightning get about two dozen positive tests before this time tomorrow, the Habs are right back in this thing!

All kidding aside, the Canadiens are going to need everything to go right to get anywhere close to winning this series. It would take some luck, and finding four lines and three defence pairings that are playing out of their minds.

It would also take a couple of minor lineup tweaks. You see, the Canadiens are on a tremendous run, and even if it ends tomorrow night it will go down as the best run a generation of Canadiens fans has ever seen. The odd thing is, they’ve done it without playing their best lineup. A couple of healthy scratches are better options than those on the ice.

Nothing has to change on the first line with Tyler Toffoli, Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield.

So, the first thing the Canadiens should do is reunite the line of Brendan Gallagher, Phillip Danault and Tomas Tatar. Yes, the line is playing well without Tatar and Artturi Lehkonen scored the biggest goal since 1993, but this trio just isn’t scoring enough. Gallagher has two goals in 20 games and Danault just scored his first of the playoffs in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final.

Inserting Tatar back onto that line would be risky considering he hasn’t played since the first round, but his chemistry with Danault and Gallagher would provide immediate results. Over the past three seasons, no one scored more points than Gallagher in a Habs sweater. The team needs offence, and this line has proven to provide plenty of it.

The current third line of Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Josh Anderson and Paul Byron is offering nothing offensively in this series. Since Lehkonen was taken off the second line, he could slide in on the left side with Kotkaniemi, and moving Joel Armia up would reunite the “Finnish Line” that had some success together.

That would push Anderson down to the fourth line, and add some speed to that unit. To add even more speed, the Canadiens should sit Eric Staal for Jake Evans. Staal has had a decent postseason, but he had just one point in six games against Vegas and is pointless so far against Tampa Bay. The stronger teams seem to have killed the momentum that the line of Staal, Armia and Corey Perry built in the first two rounds.

Speaking of Perry, he would stay on the left side of the fourth line with Evans and Anderson. That is a fourth line that can skate, defend and add some offence as well.

On defence, there is no way the top four of Ben Chiarot, Shea Weber, Joel Edmundson and Jeff Petry is changing. I won’t even suggest it. The third pairing though, needs a makeover.

Erik Gustafsson and Jon Merrill were brought in at the trade deadline and their insertion in the lineup every night is starting to look like a management team trying to justify their midseason trade acquisitions.

The fix is simple here. Just put Brett Kulak on the left side and Alexander Romanov on the right side of the third pairing. They are just better defensemen than Gustafsson and Merrill and would allow the top four to take a little more time off to rest up.

The result:

Toffoli Suzuki Caufield

Tatar Danault Gallagher

Lehkonen Kotkaniemi Armia

Perry Evans Anderson

Chiarot Weber

Edmundson Petry

Kulak Romanov

Of course, Carey Price stays in goal. An extra day off will help him get set for Game 4, and these couple of lineup changes would mean he isn’t tested regularly with high danger scoring chances in every period.

This would give the Canadiens their deepest lineup yet in these playoffs. Remember the start of the postseason when Kotkaniemi and Caufield were healthy scratches? The coaching staff eventually fixed that error, but they’ve been reluctant to use Tatar and Romanov.

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It’s time to put them in. It would give them their best chance at pulling off the biggest comeback in hockey history.

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