MONTREAL — When Montreal Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis was requested simply earlier than flying to Tampa, Fla., to face the Lightning in Sport 5 of this riveting first-round playoff collection whether or not the large hit Max Crozier laid on Juraj Slafkovský could be the defining second of this collection, his reply was very matter-of-fact.
“Don’t let moments like that outline it,” he responded. “Re-write it.”
The Canadiens have already accomplished that.
Since that hit, which feels prefer it got here weeks in the past at this level, the Canadiens went to Tampa and took Sport 5, defending a one-goal lead for almost 19 minutes on the highway to win 3-2 and earn the chance to get two kicks at closing out this collection.
The primary kick in Sport 6 didn’t go the Canadiens’ means, with the Lightning successful an exhilarating 1-0 recreation at 9:03 of additional time when Gage Goncalves shoveled residence a rebound from the lip of Jakub Dobeš’ crease.
That objective made the mixture five-on-five rating by means of six video games 9-9, and in all conditions, the rating is 14-14.
Each the Canadiens and Lightning could make a convincing argument they deserved to win Sport 6; if hockey might be artwork, this was it.
However nobody can argue this collection doesn’t need to go seven video games.
And now the Canadiens get the second kick at a close-out recreation.
It’s troublesome to not see this collection as a battle between a coming-of-age second and a fighting-off-the-effects-of-age second, of a workforce making an attempt to open a aggressive window towards a workforce making an attempt to maintain that window open simply sufficient to cement a legacy.
The Lightning have their very own anxieties linked to the results of this collection, however for the Canadiens, the large image is essential. They’ve already exceeded their five-game toe-dip into playoff hockey from a 12 months in the past; they’re proper there on this collection and have a possibility to jot down a brand new chapter of their improvement into the kind of contender the Lightning have been for a decade.
That perspective might be onerous to see when you’re initially of that journey, however extra so in the course of an especially aggressive playoff collection, and so St. Louis deserves some credit score for having the ability to see the large image amid the frustration of the small image by calling it his workforce’s “future” to play on this Sport 7.
“We’re a assured group; we consider in what we do, how we do it,” St. Louis mentioned. “We performed our recreation tonight. It was in all probability the most effective video games I’ve seen this younger group play. We’ve simply acquired to embrace the scenario.
“Issues are supposed to be, and I believe it was meant to be for our progress to go play a Sport 7. I believe it’s going to assist us develop for what’s subsequent.”
The fast “what’s subsequent” for the Canadiens is flying to Tampa on Saturday and taking part in Sport 7 on Sunday, however that’s not what St. Louis was referring to. He was referring to what’s subsequent long run for a workforce that continues to point out indicators that what we are actually seeing is barely the start of a run that may very well be just like what the Lightning are within the last phases of, a decade of excellence.
Making {that a} actuality requires conditions like this, a Sport 7 in hostile territory towards the very opponent you hope to emulate.
“I believe the way in which I have a look at it’s they’ve been a high workforce for a very long time and a Stanley Cup contender for a very long time,” Canadiens centre Jake Evans mentioned. “We’re up and coming, however I really feel like we’re simply pretty much as good and might win this collection.”
And that’s the worth, the extent of perception this younger workforce has in itself, the swagger with which it performed this close-out recreation on residence ice regardless of the very fact it didn’t get the outcome. Swagger is barely helpful if it’s earned; in any other case, it’s simply pretentious.
And the Canadiens have earned this swagger.
“Simply keep constructive,” Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki mentioned. “We have been the higher workforce for just about most of that recreation. We simply didn’t rating. I believed (Andrei) Vasilevskiy form of gained them that recreation. So I believed everybody performed an amazing recreation, we simply didn’t get the outcome.
“We’re able to go all the way down to Tampa and win Sport 7.”
Nick Suzuki and the Montreal Canadiens try to emulate the success of Nikita Kucherov’s Tampa Bay Lightning. (Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Photographs)
The Canadiens’ actuality is they aren’t a completed product, however Suzuki’s remark doesn’t sound pretentious. He has each proper to say that as a result of the Canadiens have a superb likelihood of constructing that declare a actuality. A 12 months in the past, as assured because the Canadiens felt towards the Washington Capitals, having that swagger would have been pretentious.
They weren’t able to beat the Capitals. They’re able to beat the Lightning, and whether or not they truly do is much less essential than that readiness.
“I believe it’s simply the place we’re,” St. Louis mentioned. “We didn’t have a selected timeline of how issues would unfold in our progress, however that’s the place we’re. We’re an excellent hockey workforce, and we’re being challenged with obstacles in entrance of us, and people are the issues that may take you to a wholly new degree. It’s a must to embrace it.”
Once more, St. Louis is speaking in regards to the huge image there. The Canadiens gamers shouldn’t have a big-picture view on something. They’re within the struggle and have each motive to be centered on it, however the individuals accountable for constructing this workforce can and ought to be taking a big-picture view.
And St. Louis utilizing the phrase “future” to explain this Sport 7 alternative has added that means as a result of that Sport 7 can be occurring at Benchmark Worldwide Enviornment, which was referred to as Amalie Enviornment when the occasion that led to St. Louis changing into the coach of this workforce first occurred.
The Canadiens’ rebuild started with a Sport 5 loss within the Stanley Cup Closing in 2021 to the Lightning. A number of months later, the whole lot unravelled, then in got here Jeff Gorton, Kent Hughes after which St. Louis.
And although Gorton and Hughes and St. Louis weren’t with the Canadiens once they misplaced that Stanley Cup Closing in Tampa, Suzuki was. As was Evans, and Cole Caufield, and Brendan Gallagher, and Josh Anderson and Phillip Danault. It was the one Cup Closing any of them had ever performed in.
You desire a big-picture view of this Sport 7? It could be encapsulated in that second, that loss in Sport 5 of the ultimate, and watching the Lightning elevate the Stanley Cup whereas realizing franchise pillars Carey Value and Shea Weber had performed the ultimate significant video games of their careers. That left some scar tissue.
And scar tissue might be helpful within the playoffs.
Earlier than the collection, Suzuki was requested if there have been lingering results from that loss within the last. He snickered at first.
“Is there something lingering?” he mentioned then. “I imply, we misplaced a Cup, so there’s undoubtedly feelings and emotions on how that ended for us, and the fellows that skilled that may lean on that and present the fellows within the room what it takes to win within the playoffs.”
Two weeks later, that chance has come to fruition.
“Hopefully, we get our redemption for the fellows that have been part of that,” Suzuki mentioned after Sport 6. “Everybody’s been striving for this objective.
“We’ve acquired one recreation to get to the subsequent spherical, so acquired to make the most of that.”