The Montreal Canadiens stunned the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 1, swinging the series momentum after what Jon Cooper described as 'stupidity' from his team. It is a long series, but for a team that is viewed as the underdog or inexperienced, a win like this can go a long way in advancing.
After the game, Lightning head coach Jon Cooper was brutally honest about his team's performance, "We took four offensive zone penalties, just look at them. That was not over-aggression, that was stupidity in a lot of them."
"That was a game where we gave them an opportunity to win," Cooper said.
Penalties, and particularly special teams, was a big storyline in this game as the two teams combined for five power play goals. Fortunately, the Canadiens got the last power play goal due to a careless penalty by Jake Guentzel with less than 30 seconds left in the third period.
In the Stanley Cup Playoffs, overtimes are no longer 3-on-3 like in the regular season, so having the man advantage in the extra period was a huge boost for the Canadiens. Juraj Slafkovsky capped off a historic night with the power play hat trick.
Montreal Canadiens capitalized on a season-long problem for the Tampa Bay Lightning
Penalties is nothing new for the Tampa Bay Lightning as they led the league in penalty minutes this season, and by a wide margin with 1,207 and 200 more than the Boston Bruins. For the Lightning, taking as many penalties as they did didn't matter much as they finished Top 3 in penalty kill percentage.
However, the Canadiens were able to capitalize on their mistakes in this game and that was ultimately the deciding factor on Sunday night. It was clear that the Canadiens, especially late, were the more composed team, even though the Lightning is the much more experienced team in the playoffs.
Jon Cooper was clearly frustrated after the game and not holding back by calling some of the decisions stupid. The question now is how the Lightning adjust and if they play a more disciplined game moving forward.
One of the big questions entering the playoffs was whether the Montreal Canadiens were ready to take that next step in their development. On Sunday night, they showed at least initially that they were the more composed team, and that is something that could carry through this series against the Lightning.
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