The third period was absolutely brutal for the Montreal Canadians last night who haven’t won a Cup since 1993 with Patrick Roy in net.
I picked Tampa at the beginning of these playoffs and yesterday picked them to win the Finals in six games. I’m not feeling good about Montreal winning those two games just now. But here’s the thing about hockey, you can’t knee jerk. You have to believe in yourself and what got you past Toronto down 1-3 and what got you past Vegas in the conference finals.
You go back to the film and look at how Tampa scored their five goals and what can be changed. You sell your team on the fact they played okay for forty minutes then allowed the Lightning to go on the powerplay in the third period and one of your own defensemen scored a goal for them as well.
I don’t care how good you think your penalty killing units are…you’re playing with fire when you give Nikita Kucherov additional time and space. You cannot let that motherfucker breathe with possession of the puck. That is not a winning formula for success.
First goal was soft from my view and Price usually makes that save. I thought the second goal was a somewhat legit goal. Third goal was a powerplay goal. Fourth goal… #8 a defenseman for Montreal actually hand passed in mid air mind you the puck into his own net. That cannot happen as well. Fifth goal was another power play goal… I believe.
Game 1 was over at 4-1. It was piss on the fire and call in the dogs because this Montreal team is limited offensively.
Here’s my analogy if you’re a non-hockey person. Tampa is Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs while Montreal is Jared Allen and the Buffalo Bills.
It will be tough for the Canadians to score four goals in a game. They have to win games at 3-2 or 2-1. They have to find a way to steal three goals a game.
Montreal has to forecheck better and create one turnover goal a game. They need to get Corey Perry or someone else in front of Tampa’s net and either jam a rebound or redirect a shot from the point. And they need to score a powerplay goal themselves here and there.
The Buffalo Bills actually have a glamour offensive weapon in Sheldon Diggs. These Canadians don’t even have a Sheldon Diggs let alone a Tyreke Hill…if you know what I’m writing on here.
Nikita Kucherov=Tyreke Hill
And here’s this thing, this isn’t Tyreke Hill playing for the dumbass Mullet King Mike Gundy who never got him the ball. This is Tyreke Hill with a coach in John Cooper who may be the best coach in the NHL. This is a coach who dreams of ways to create time and space for #86.
Here’s another thing… If you could remove Kucherov from the equation this Montreal club would at least have a puncher’s chance in these games.
I wouldn’t necessarily say you put a bounty on Nikita Kucherov, but I would make it clear every time he touched the puck you drive him hard into the boards with ill temper and try and exact a toll on his body.
I guarantee that’s better than anything Barry Melrose said after last night’s game.
I think Al Pacino needs to pay a little visit to the Montreal locker room before Game 2.
This is the ultimate example of a coach creating space and time for a superstar albeit the other team’s best offensive threat. Bob Stoops is cool. He’d at this I’m fairly certain.