The Montreal Canadiens are set to kick off the Stanley Cup Playoffs on the road against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Canadiens had an excellent season with 106 points, which is a 15 point increase over the prior season, but finished in a tie with the Lightning. However, Tampa Bay finished second, and home ice advantage, due to the regulation win tiebreaker.
This has the potential to be a very exciting series between two teams that know each other well. On the season, the Canadiens hold a 2-1-1 record against Tampa Bay, but it is worth noting that the two wins came in the last 10 games.
Even with this momentum, the Canadiens still have some questions entering the first-round series with the Tampa Bay.
How do the Canadiens handle the absence of Noah Dobson?
The big question coming into this series is how the Canadiens replace Noah Dobson, who is their second-best defenseman behind Lane Hutson. He has been a big reason for their success this season, but suffered an upper-body injury in the third-to-last game of the regular season and is expected to be out at least two weeks.
If this series goes six or seven games, there might be a chance for Dobson to return for those later games, but the Canadiens need to figure out how to get there without one of their key players. Over the final regular season games, David Reinbacher made his NHL debut and has looked good in the last two games.
Right now, he probably should be the favorite to start Game 1, even with the limited NHL experience. However, the big question is whether or not Alexandre Carrier is ready to return, as he is another defenseman who could factor into the equation.
Carrier suffered an injury at the end of March that was expected to keep him out two-to-four weeks. If he can return, it certainly would be a boost for the blueline and help minimize the impact of the absence of Noah Dobson.
Can Jakub Dobes get back on track?
One of the reasons the Montreal Canadiens went on the run they did after the Olympic break was that they got improved play in net, and Jakub Dobes was the primary reason for that. Since the Olympic break, Dobes has an 11-5-0 record, which includes a win streak of seven games that he started.
During this stretch, Dobes was not allowing much at all in net, and in 13 of those 16 games, he allowed three or fewer. However, the past two games have been a different story, and Dobes has lost his last two starts and allowed a combined nine goals.
While Dobes hasn't lost the starting job, if he struggles in Game 1 and Game 2, it wouldn't be surprising if Martin St. Louis makes a switch and goes to Jacob Fowler at some point in the series.
What does the Canadiens second line look like with Ivan Demidov?
The Canadiens have had a lot of success with Juraj Slafkovsky on the top line with Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki. However, the coaching staff has struggled to find exactly what the best second line is with Ivan Demidov.
Towards the end of the season, the Canadiens moved Oliver Kapanen off that line and replaced him with Alex Newhook at center. One of the reasons for the switch was Kapanen's struggles in the faceoff circle, as he was around 47% on the season. Meanwhile, over the last 10 games, Newhook has a faceoff percentage of 60%.
At this point, Newhook should remain the center, but the question is, does Kapanen get moved back up to the second line to play on the wing, do they stick with Alexandre Texier, who was there in the last game of the regular season, or does the coaching staff go in a completely different direction?
Can the Canadiens power-play breakthrough against the Lightning?
One of the keys to this series is going to be special teams play, and the team that does a better job in this area is probably the team that advances. For the Canadiens, the focus needs to be on getting back to the dominant power-play unit they were earlier in the season.
For the entire season, the Canadiens have a power play percentage of 23.1%, which finished as the 10th-best percentage in the NHL. However, down the stretch, the power play wasn't nearly as effective, and over the final eight games, they scored only four power-play goals on 31 opportunities for a percentage of 12.9%.
The challenge is that the Lightning have an excellent penalty kill unit that finished the season third in the NHL at 82.6%.
In the last game these two teams met, the Canadiens had seven power play opportunities and failed to convert any into goals. They can't afford to let these chances slip through their fingers if they hope to get past the Lightning and advance to the next round.
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