NHL: Tampa Bay Lightning at Montreal Canadiens
Credit: Eric Bolte-Imagn Images

The Montreal Canadiens hosted the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday night, aiming to avoid losing any ground in the tightly-contested playoff race in the Eastern Conference.

Tampa had lost four straight—including back-to-back shutouts—and had to travel on Monday night, making it a perfect opportunity for the well-rested Canadiens playing on home ice.

However, despite having the deck heavily stacked in their favour, the Habs failed to show up, and the Lightning emerged with an easy 6-1 win.

Let’s dive into the highlights!

Here We Go Again

The Canadiens are no strangers to poor starts, but Tuesday night’s game brought that concept to a new level. The Lightning weren’t just the better team in the first two periods, they were flat-out dominant, quickly establishing a 4-0 lead while the Habs looked on in horror.

The third goal against was arguably the most embarrassing, at least from a strategic standpoint.

With four skaters forming a line and Struble serving as the anchor, the Canadiens emulated the celebrated fishhook defensive formation that worked wonders for Major General George G. Meade and the Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg, but is famously considered a questionable setup when discussing hockey.

Keep in mind, the player the Canadiens didn’t bother to cover with their brilliant defensive strategy was none other than three-time Art Ross Trophy winner Nikita Kucherov, one of the most productive players in the NHL.

Rookie Impact

The Canadiens finally responded, though it came late in the second period. A solid controlled entry by rookie Ivan Demidov led to a great scoring chance for captain Nick Suzuki, who beat Jonas Johansson, but not the iron.

Fortunately, another rookie was in position to clean up the play, as St-Louis opted to start his second powerplay unit rather than the first. Oliver Kapanen may have questionable underlying numbers at 5v5, but he sure does how to drive the net to take advantage of quality scoring chances, as evidenced by the fact that he’s now tied with Juraj Slafkovsky for the second-most goals among all Canadiens players this season (9).

Of Corsi

Any hope for a comeback was quickly put to rest in the opening minutes of the third period, as Taylor Raddysh beat Samuel Montembeault with a terrible shot from a horrible angle.

Montembeault relieved Dobes after he allowed three goals on six shots, but there is no true relief when it comes to Montreal Canadiens goaltending this season.

Only pain.

The Montreal Canadiens are back in action on Thursday, facing the Penguins in Pittsburgh. The puck drop is scheduled for 7 pm ET.

All Montreal Canadiens statistics are 5v5 unless otherwise noted, via Natural Stat Trick.

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By Marc Dumont
Marc has been covering the Habs for over a decade. He previously worked for Journal Metro, The Athletic, The ... More about Marc Dumont

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