The Montreal Canadiens could have taken the day off; the coach had made practice optional, but then changed his mind. They got right back to work, fully aware that they could improve on their performance.
The day after their 4-3 overtime win over the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Montreal Canadiens were back at work at the Benchmark International Arena. What was originally supposed to be an optional skate turned into a regular practice an hour before the time. A regular practice, but a short one.
While the Canadiens came out on top on Sunday, they did so by scoring three power-play goals; if you take special teams out of the equation, the score would have been 1-1 after 60 minutes. Of course, nobody will complain about a power play that strikes as often, but you cannot take for granted that you’ll get so many calls every night, especially not in the playoffs, when the referees do tend to put the whistle away.
Both Martin St-Louis and Cole Caufield were asked about the Nick Suzuki line being kept in check by the Anthony Cirelli line, and neither had a magic formula for the Habs’ top line to produce at even strength. The sniper was up front saying: There’s a lot to talk about five-on-five that we could do better at, and we’ll do that for game two. Asked if there was a workaround for the Cirelli line, the American simply replied:
Yeah, we’re going to have to figure it out. It’s the first game; there’s a little feeling-out process. It’s a line you can’t take any risk, and they don’t give up much, so we’re going to find ways, we’re going to find the answers, and hopefully, we’ll find some ways to do it.
As for the coach, when asked about that, he simply replied that they’d keep on going, as they have all season. Of course, if they did find a magical way to solve that line, they wouldn’t come out and say it, but so early in a series, it’s far from surprising that some adjustments have to be made, especially between two teams so evenly matched.
Once again, the coach spoke about the importance of playing the right way, of being calculated on both sides of the puck, which can lead to more offensive opportunities. That’s nothing new; that’s what he’s been selling to his players all season, and to be fair, for the most part, that’s how they played on Sunday.
The fact is, though, the Tampa Bay Lightning is the team on the other side, and they, too, are playing the right way. It wasn’t easy to come away with the win, but it wasn’t supposed to be easy; this is the Stanley Cup playoffs, and nothing comes easy.
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