Habs News: Montreal Canadiens, Dominique Ducharme, Jeff Petry, Nick Suzuki, Erik Gustafsson, Cole Caufield, Alexander Romanov, Tampa Bay Lightning, Stanley Cup, NHL

ROCKET SPORTS MEDIA | LAVAL, QC. — The Canadiens Stanley Cup run isn’t playing out the way the Habs hoped as they hit the ice to prevent a four-game sweep against the Lightning on Monday.

Tampa Bay dominated the opening match of the series defeating Montreal 5-1 at Amalie Arena.  “We had chances when the game was tighter. If we bury those chances, it’s a different game. When they got their third and fourth goal, we started trying to force things and push things. They’re a team that feeds off the transition and turnovers. When you’re forcing things, that’s what’s going to happen. I don’t think it was a blowout by any means,” Jeff Petry said.

Blake Coleman scored the eventual game-winning goal with less than one second remaining in the middle frame as the Lightning went on to a 3-1 victory. “It’s definitely something you don’t want to do, give up goals in the first or last minute of periods. That was definitely tough,” Shea Weber said on the play that was a result of multiple defensive errors.

Montreal returned home to play in front of 3,500 fans at the Bell Centre on Friday, but that didn’t stop Tampa Bay from flexing their muscles. The Lightning silenced the crowd by scoring twice in the opening 3:27 of the contest. The Habs attempted to cut the deficit, but the Bolts kept attacking and headed to a 6-3 win.

“They’re an excellent team. They capitalize on every mistake we make. Our mistakes are huge. We need to limit our mistakes, we need to make small plays, we just need to be better,” Philip Danault explained the difficult start.

Staying Positive

The Canadiens have an uphill battle in front of them to overcome the 3-0 series deficit. Most experts and fans (including myself) counted them out when they trailed 3-1 against the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Habs turned it around to win seven consecutive games. It will be hard for Montreal to win four straight against Tampa Bay, but not impossible.

“We wanted to come in and make sure the mood is light, have a positive attitude, still have fun coming into this rink and not hang our heads. We have a big challenge ahead of us. We’ve had a challenging year all year. Just to come in and enjoy it every day has been the message. I think everyone is in good spirits,” Petry said on the team’s mood.

Dominique Ducharme‘s message has been to focus on winning the next game, and not looking too far ahead to the ultimate goal.

“We’re here for a reason. Obviously, we’ve dug ourselves a little bit of a hole here. But, we have a job to do and we’re going to do everything we can to stay in this thing and fly out to Tampa on Tuesday. Everyone is just getting prepared for Game 4. We’re all going to compete, work hard and put a full effort in,” Josh Anderson said.

There’s no doubt that Ducharme’s team will not go down without a fight. The veterans, and the coaching staff remind each other about the importance of their current opportunity. “There are 29 other teams that aren’t playing anymore. Those cities would all love to still see hockey being played. We’re still alive, and we’ll make the most of the chance we have in front of us,” said the coach.

New Power Play Units

Sunday’s practice in Brossard focused exclusively on the power play. The Canadiens have scored once in six opportunities with the extra attacker since the start of the Stanley Cup final.

“We needed to take that time to work on our power play, which sometimes during a round or towards the end of the year was hard to do, because we didn’t have time. And if we have two power plays [Monday], we want to make the most out of them. If we have more, we want to make a difference with that too,” Ducharme explained.

The coaching staff made changes to the units in preparation for Monday’s game. Erik Gustafsson was removed from the power play, and replaced by Petry on the top unit.

On the second unit, Jesperi Kotkaniemi was removed and replaced by Eric Staal, while Joel Armia took the spot vacated by Petry. Ducharme said that these are the units that they feel will bring them success.

A power play opportunity is considered successful when it results in a goal or when it creates momentum. Montreal’s hasn’t done either in this series.

The prime example is during game two, when the Habs had a four-on-three opportunity for 1:55 at the end of the first period. The unit sent over the boards by Luke Richardson had two defencemen on the ice, and Cole Caufield on the bench.

Obviously we’ll never know if Caufield’s presence would have produced a different result, but we do know that the game was scoreless, and getting the lead would have changed the momentum. It’s safe to say that Caufield on the ice would generate more scoring opportunities than having Gustafsson and Weber both on the ice.

Change on Defence

Ducharme didn’t commit to any lineup changes for Monday’s game. All indications point that Gustafsson will sit out for game four. The change is a long time coming based on several experts and fans on social media.

“He brings offence, it’s one of the main reasons that he’s in the lineup. It’s the way he moves the puck, and create plays on the power play. When we’re trailing on the score like that and we need to generate more offence, he will receive more ice,” Ducharme said about the defenceman’s 16 minutes of ice time in game three.

It was Gustafsson’s highest ice time since the start of the post season, and it was highlighted by the number of errors he made that night. The only other game that Gustafsson played more in a Canadiens uniform was in the final game of the regular season in a meaningless match against the Oilers.

Brett Kulak and Alexander Romanov are the most likely candidates to replace the veteran in the lineup. My bet is that Kulak will slot in. Regardless of who hits the ice on Monday, there will be a lot of pressure as they won’t want to make a mistake that can lead to a goal against.

Romanov is the only young player on the roster who hasn’t obtained ample playing opportunity during this year’s playoff run. He played in two games, after putting on the uniform 54 times during the regular season.

Ducharme doesn’t feel that Romanov’s lack of play in the playoffs will affect his development. “He’s been part of it, he’s young. We’re still working with him. It’s not because he’s not playing that he’s not learning,” said the coach.

Adjustments

If you want to find a reason that Montreal is facing the possibility of getting swept, the first place to look for a solution is on offence. Scoring five times through three games gives no margin of error for Carey Price and the defence overall.

The Canadiens need other players besides Nick Suzuki to help with the offence. Suzuki’s linemates on the first line, Tyler Toffoli and Caufield need to generate more attack. They have combined 10 shots on goal, and one assist against Tampa Bay.

Danault’s line has a shutdown role since the start of the playoff run, which I think they’ve done a good job, but on the other side of the ice, the trio with Brendan Gallagher and Artturi Lehkonen will need to produce more than one goal since the start of the final.

The line of Kotkaniemi, Anderson, and Paul Byron hasn’t produced either. They were on the ice when Ben Chiarot’s point shot hit two Lightning defenders before beating Andrei Vasilevskiy in the opening match, and that’s it.

On Monday, it will be crucial for the Canadiens to score the first goal. In this year’s playoffs, Montreal 11 of the 13 games where they opened the scoring. Tampa Bay has won once in the five games where they allowed their opponents to score first.

“We need to manage to start the right way, and come out active, dynamic, and playing our game,” Ducharme said. The home team scoring the opening goal will also activate the 3,500 fans in the arena. The Bell Centre is a hostile place when the crowd is loudly supporting its team.

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By Chris G., Senior Writer
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