When the 2020-21 season began, the Montreal Canadiens were no one’s Stanley Cup favourite. Many would have predicted they qualified for the playoffs in the Canadian Division, but not many people were picking them to go on a run to the Stanley Cup Final.
After a terrific ten game start, people were looking at them differently, but that didn’t last. Once the hot streak fizzled, everyone believed their quick start was a mirage and this team wasn’t good enough to go on a long playoff run.
Heck, even at the start of the third round, after beating the Toronto Maple Leafs and Winnipeg Jets, most predicted the Vegas Golden Knights to tap dance their way into the Stanley Cup Final.
But, the Canadiens proved this was no fluke when they ousted the Golden Knights in six games. Vegas was tied with the Colorado Avalanche for the top spot in the NHL standings in the regular season with 82 points in 56 games. Their 40-14-2 record was the envy of any team in the Canadian Division.
However, it was the underdog Canadiens that came out on top, reeling off four wins in five games after being taken out 4-1 in the opening game of the series. They defeated the team that missed out on the President’s Trophy via a technicality (less regulation wins than Colorado) and in the process proved they were a formidable playoff foe.
The fact they are down 3-0 to the Tampa Bay Lightning right now doesn’t take anything away from the fact they were able to defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs, dominate the Winnipeg Jets and take down the Vegas Golden Knights.
In fact, they are a couple of missed opportunities that were in front of them from leading this series with the Lightning right now.
Game 1 belonged to Tampa Bay. They clearly showed that they had Stanley Cup Final experience from a year ago and knew exactly how to handle the big stage. The Canadiens looked tentative and not ready for the big moment.
However, Game 2 was the complete opposite. The Canadiens dominated the game for long stretches, firing 43 shots on goal but Andrei Vasilevskiy was up to the task, turning aside 42 of them. A Blake Coleman goal with less than a second left in the second period gave the Lightning a lead they would not relinquish.
The opportunity to win the game was there as the Habs consistently fired shots on goal, but they just could not convert. The Canadiens were better than the Lightning in Game 2, but had it stolen away by Vasilevskiy.
In Game 3, Vasilevskiy was not nearly as sharp. He allowed a Phillip Danault wrist shot off the rush from outside the hash marks. He allowed a Nick Suzuki shot from a terribly sharp angle off the rush and he was beat by Corey Perry over the shoulder from an even tighter angle as he was barely in front of the goal line when he unleashed his wrister.
Vasilevskiy was unbeatable in Game 2 which was the reason Tampa won, but he was very beatable in Game 3. Unfortunately for the Canadiens, so was Carey Price. The Habs goaltender has been excellent for the entire postseason, but he looked shaky in Game 3, and for the first time all postseason, the Canadiens scored three goals and lost the game as Price allowed five.
A couple of uncharacteristic weak goals by Price gave the Lightning a 2-0 lead before the first commercial break. We haven’t seen him allowing shots from the point to beat him throughout the postseason, but two in a row gave the Lightning a cushion to lean on for the rest of the game.
Again, the opportunity was there to win Game 3. In a playoff series, Vasilevskiy isn’t going to have many bad games, but he was not at the top of his game on Friday night in Montreal.
Unfortunately, again, the Canadiens were not able to capitalize on the opportunity placed in front of them.
The Canadiens deserved to win Game 2 based on how well they played and if Carey Price played Game 3 like he played in every game of the first three series it would have been enough for the team to win.
A 3-0 series deficit looks awful, but the Canadiens weren’t that far off from leading this series. The Stanley Cup Final is no place for moral victories, but don’t let anyone tell you the Canadiens don’t belong in this series.