The Montreal Canadiens face a tall order: winning a second game on the road in their series against the Tampa Bay Lightning, and igniting the first line could be the way to do that, but that's easier said than done.
The Montreal Canadiens are tied 2-2 in their best-of-seven series against the Tampa Bay Lightning, even though their top line has been kept off the scoresheet at even strength. But wherever the game is, Jon Cooper is doing a pretty good job of keeping Anthony Cirelli and Brandon Hagel glued to Nick Suzuki, which is the main reason the first line has been unable to produce.
Suzuki’s line hasn’t been the only one that has failed to get on the scoresheet, however. The same can be said about the second half of the top six; whether the second line has been centred by Alex Newhook or by Oliver Kapanen, it has also failed to produce.
One can wonder if it’s perhaps time for Martin St-Louis to consider splitting his first line to form two dangerous units. If the second line becomes more of a threat, Cooper may be forced to reconsider his matchups. As good as he is, Cirelli cannot play 40 minutes a night.
We’ve seen Juraj Slafkovsky be a driving force earlier this season on a line with Oliver Kapanen and Ivan Demidov. Still, when the big Slovak was on that line, it was tough to find a good option to complete Suzuki and Cole Caufield’s duo on the line. Alexandre Texier has proven to be an interesting option, but he tends to make less of an impact when he’s playing on the road.
One player who has been impactful in this series is Josh Anderson. The line he completes with Jake Evans and Phillip Danault has found a way to get on the scoreboard in the two games that were played in Tampa Bay. Could it be an idea to put the power forward on the top line? Granted, it has not been a very fruitful combination in the regular season, but playoff Anderson is a different animal. He relishes using his big body on the forecheck and gets in opponents’ heads. If he were able to go and retrieve pucks for Suzuki and Caufield, and they moved in traffic, as they did on the power play in the last game, good things may happen.
Would taking him away from the Danault line make it less effective, though? Most probably, which is why the coach has a big dilemma on his hands. The line formed by Alexandre Texier, Kirby Dach and Zach Bolduc wasn’t as efficient in Game 4 as it was in Game 3, either, aside from the Bolduc goal, of course. They need to find a way to get back to that Game 3 level, and the sooner, the better.
The success of that plan remains conditional on Slafkovsky being able to make an impact on the second line, though. In two of the first four games, the first-overall selection at the 2022 draft has been downed, once by a solid punch to the chin and once by a bone-crushing hit. The power forward needs to find a way to avoid those situations that have become momentum catalysts for the Bolts.
With the series tied at two wins for each team, Game 5 could very well become a turning point. If the Canadiens can go to Tampa and steal a win on the road for the second time in this series, they’ll push the Lightning to the brink of elimination and have an opportunity to finish the job in Montreal on Friday night.
So far, neither team has won two games in a row, but it would be the safest way for the Canadiens to get out of this first round. They don’t want to need to go back to Tampa Bay for a Game seven. If they manage to come back to the Bell Centre with a 3-2 lead, they may be able to feed off the home crowd’s energy and finish the job, but before they have an opportunity to do that, they need to get the win in Game 5, and that’s a tall order.
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