Following each game of the Lightning-Canadiens series, Eric Engels will be providing his post-game takeaways for sportsnet.ca. Follow him on Twitter @ericengels
Here’s everything you need to know after Game 2 between the Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning.
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Prust incensed with referee Brad Watson
The Montreal Canadiens managed to score in the first period for just the second time in these Stanley Cup playoffs and they had the Lightning on the ropes when Brandon Prust went to the box for roughing.
On his way there, Prust got into a confrontation with official Brad Watson, and Watson subsequently gave him an extra two-minute penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct.
Here’s Prust on what he says led to the call:
“I saw [Watson] put his hand up right away as I was kinda jumping around {Braydon] Coburn to get to the net and I saw his hand up right away. The punches to the head after were kinda me just trying to get [Coburn] maybe to take one too. So I thought the original call was kinda soft and I let him know on the way to the penalty box, and you know [Watson] kept provoking me. He came to the box and called me every name in the book. Called me a ‘piece of you know what’. Called me a ‘mother-f_____, coward’ said he’d drive me right out of this building and I just kept going, ‘yeah okay, yeah okay, yeah okay.’ …I wasn’t looking at him and he just teed me up [with an extra penalty].That’s the ref he is. He tries to play God and tries to control the game and he did that tonight.”
Here’s what I gathered from a former long-time NHL official after the game:
1. There will be an investigation into Prust’s comments. There are microphones all over the rink, and the audio is accessible to the League. If Prust’s comments are true, the repercussions could be severe for Watson.
2. Watson is unlikely to oversee another game in this series, regardless of whether he said these things to Prust or not. According to the former official: “I’d be beyond shocked if he reffed another game in Round 2, and definitely not in this series.”
3. If Prust’s allegations are proven false, he’ll be subject to a massive fine for publicly defaming an official.
Lightning power play comes alive
Entering Game 2, the Canadiens and Lightning owned the worst power plays among the remaining teams in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
At 4.4 per cent, Montreal was just marginally worse than Tampa’s 5.9 per cent.
It wasn’t Prust’s double-minor that cost the Canadiens, it was the one by P.K. Subban right after that burned them.
Valtteri Filppula–in the final minute of a near perfect first period for the Canadiens–roofed one from 35-feet out on a one-timer that beat Carey Price glove side.
“That was the one that hurt them,” said Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper. “There was no goal bigger than Filppula’s. They were carrying the play clearly in the first period, and for them to walk into the dressing room and really have nothing to show for it, I thought that was really a momentum-swinger for us.”
Canadiens coach Michel Therrien agreed.
“We got the start that we were looking for,” Therrien said. “Before we took some really, really bad penalties at the end of the first period, I thought we were perfect. It’s simple: Undisciplined (play) cost us the game. This is unacceptable.”
But the score was just 1-1 after the first, and Therrien addressed the lack of discipline with his team in the first intermission, but obviously, his message fell on deaf ears.
After Steven Stamkos broke a nine-game scoring slump with a breakaway goal at even strength (we’ll get to that later), Nikita Kucherov finished a perfect passing play with the Lightning on a 4-on-3. Victor Hedman added insult to injury with 14 seconds left in the second period.
Kucherov put the nail in the coffin with the Lightning’s fourth power play marker of the game at 6:37 of the third period to make it 5-1 for Tampa.
They weren’t the type of goals you expect a slumping power play to break through with. There was no mess of bodies in front of Price, no freakish tips into the net. All of them were passing plays, as the Lightning was unimpeded from pushing pucks through the seams in the offensive zone.
The Canadiens ended up with 53 minutes in penalties including three 10-minute misconducts shared by Prust and Dale Weise—who was ejected for bumping a linesman in pursuit of Kucherov after being clipped by him with a low hit before the Canadiens scored their second goal.
“They’re frustrated, they’re competing, they’re athletes; they want to win,” said Cooper of the Canadiens. “Clearly that works in our favour when that happens, but it’s just frustration setting in. We’re fine with it.”
Max Pacioretty wasn’t impressed with his team’s lack of composure.
“We pissed the game away,” Pacioretty said. “We gotta be resilient and we gotta be able to handle that adversity,” he continued. “I think during the year we did a good job of handling that adversity and it seems like in these playoffs, we have had the good starts and then it seems like something happens that throws off our game.”
Stamkos comes up big
You could see it percolating in the neutral zone. The Canadiens turned the puck over at the offensive blueline, and there was Stamkos in full flight between Andrei Markov and Subban at the other end.
He turned into a perfect pass by Jason Garrison, split the defence, moved forehand, backhand, forehand before slipping it by Price. It was Stamkos’ first goal in nine games.
It wasn’t the dirty, chippy, off-your-face goal every slumping player refers to when they talk about breaking out. It was the type of goal only the most gifted of goal-scorers could muster, and it was a major boost for Stamkos and the Lightning.
“I think I saw a replay of him when he went in the corner after he had scored and it just looked like relief,” said Cooper. “I don’t know if I saw it right but it just seemed like it was just a weight off his shoulders.
“It’s not like [Stamkos] got the 6-2 goal. … You need the big goal and he got it for us.”
When asked if it was a relief to Cooper to have his top gun finally find the back of the net, he laughed and said:
“I don’t know if it was more of a relief for me that he scored or that the power play scored.”
The Canadiens face a near-impossible task
No team in hockey had a better home record this year than the Lightning. They lost just eight times in regulation and added another one in the shootout at Amalie Arena.
The Lightning did however lose two games at home in the first round against Detroit.
“We got two days between games to figure it out,” said Pacioretty. “We were in this position last year against New York [Rangers], same exact thing. We were unable to come back in the [Eastern Conference Final]. But if the guys from last year who are here now need some motivation they can look at that.”
