The Montreal Canadiens find themselves in a tough situation. They have made an impressive run to the Stanley Cup Final but now their backs are against the wall.
Not only do they have to win tonight, they have to win four in a row against a team that hasn’t lost two in a row in the playoffs this year or in last year’s championship run.
That is a tall task and losing three straight to begin the series did call for some lineup changes. Would they insert Brett Kulak? Maybe give veteran Eric Staal a night off? Find a way to get Alexander Romanov into the lineup?
Any of those ideas would make sense. And it sounds like Kulak and Romanov will form the third pairing tonight in favour of Jon Merrill and Erik Gustafsson who haven’t been able to earn much ice time at even strength throughout the postseason. Also, Evans will step back into the lineup in tonight’s do or die Game 4.
All of that makes sense, but what doesn’t make sense is scratching Jesperi Kotkaniemi to make room for Evans.
But that is exactly what is going to happen tonight.
So according to coach Joel Edmundson, the #Habs Game 4 line-up will look like this:
— Priyanta Emrith (@HabsInHighHeels) July 5, 2021
Toffoli-Danault-Gallagher
Caufield-Suzuki-Anderson
Byron-Evans-Lehkonen
Armia-Staal-Perry
Chiarot-Weber
Edmundson-Petry
Romanov-Kulak
Price
Kotkaniemi was drafted third overall in 2018 by the Canadiens and will turn 21 years old tomorrow. He is a huge part of the future of this team and getting to play an elimination game in the Stanley Cup Finals at this age would grant him an enormous amount of experience that is not afforded to many 20 year old centres in the league.
Not only is Kotkaniemi a big part of the future of this team, he has been a huge part of this current playoff run. He is tied for fifth on the Canadiens in playoff points and the only Habs player with more goals than him in this postseason is Nick Suzuki.
You might recall that Kotkaniemi, as well as Cole Caufield, was a healthy scratch to begin the playoffs. He stepped in and scored in Game 2, Game 5 and the overtime winner in Game 6 of that series.
Having him sit at all was the wrong decision in the first round and he proved it. It’s still the wrong decision so let’s hope the Habs can extend the series without him and give him a chance to prove the coaching staff wrong again.