On Sunday night, the Montreal Canadiens made NHL history, but in a way they probably didn't expect to. While Wayne Gretzky is credited with the quote "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take," the Canadiens tested the theory of exactly how few shots a team has to shoot to win a game.
That answer is now nine as the Canadiens would record only nine shots on goal against the Lightning and set the NHL record for fewest shots on goal in a playoff win with only nine. However, even with the limited shots, the Canadiens would find a way to get two by Andrei Vasilevskiy to secure a 2-1 win and advance to the next round of the playoffs.
During the regular season, the Canadiens averaged just over 26 shots on goal per game. While there was a slight dip in the per game average in this series entering Game 7, it was still over 24 shots on goal per game.
On Sunday night, though, the Canadiens just couldn't seem to find a way to get consistent pressure in the offensive zone and get pucks on net. In the first period, the Canadiens had four shots on goal with Nick Suzuki scoring the first goal of the game with less than two minutes left in the period.
However, after that the shot attempts would be almost non-existent as the Canadiens would have no shots on goal in the second and only five in the third period. Fortunately, one of those shots on goal would go in as Alex Newhook would bounce a puck behind Vasilevskiy for the game-winning goal.
Nick Suzuki was the only Montreal Canadiens player with more than one shot on goal in Game 7
When looking at the box score, it is remarkable to see that there was only one player who had more than one shots on goal and that was Nick Suzuki, who finished the game with three. After him, there were six players on the Canadiens who had only one shot on goal.
It is not something seen often, and certainly not something that the Canadiens are going to want to replicate moving forward in their series with the Buffalo Sabres.
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