Welcome to fantasy land, where anything and everything will happen. Your wildest dreams can and will come true, no matter how outlandish. And today we are looking at the most outlandish of them all: The Montreal Canadiens can reverse sweep the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Impossible, right? Probably, surely, almost definitely. But right now we are in fantasy land, so we can talk about how it can happen.
In Game 4, the Canadiens took a huge step forward and won in overtime to keep the season alive, forcing a Game 5 in Tampa. One-quarter of the way there, just try to forget the other guys are three-quarters of the way done.
So, let’s just say this is going to happen.
How can it?
Tampa has looked unstoppable this series, and even in Game 2, where Montreal dominated, Tampa still came out with the win.
Well, we have the template in the game that was just played.
Step 1: Take it One Game at a Time
Asking to beat any team four games in a row is tough. Asking any team to beat the 2021 Tampa Bay Lightning four games in a row is a really big ask, almost impossible. Asking the 2021 Montreal Canadiens, the last team to qualify for the playoffs, to best the 2021 Tampa Bay Lightning four games in a row seems downright impossible.
But asking this Habs team to beat the Bolts once is very doable. Heck, they did it last game, even while being outshot and outchanced by a Tampa team hungry to win their second straight Stanley Cup. Why could they not do it again?
It’s an old cliche in hockey books but it works. Win one game and the Habs are suddenly back into the series. Win one more, and the series goes to a deciding seventh game. Win that game, and the Canadiens are Stanley Cup Champions. Broken into small parts, which is how the team must look at this, it almost looks doable.
Side note: does that last game not feel a little bit similar to Game 5 in Toronto?
Everyone said that Toronto was guaranteed to win the series, Montreal got the lead, but couldn’t hold on and it seemed that all hope was lost in overtime. But against all odds, Montreal got a lucky break and got a gasp of air. And we all know how that turned out.
It might not be the exact same scenario, but it’s close enough for fantasy land.
One game at a time. That’s how the series is played, and that is how Montreal has to look at it.