MONTREAL — An inch, maybe two. Roughly a quarter of a skate blade moving at more than 20 kilometres per hour.
That was the difference between a frustrating loss and potential victory for the Montreal Canadiens in a thrilling second-round opener with the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday night.
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In this case, the linesman didn’t call an offside when Valtteri Filppula appeared to enter the offensive zone just ahead of puck-carrying teammate Brian Boyle. Twelve seconds later, after a strong cycle, Nikita Kucherov beat Carey Price to freeze the clock at 2:06 into double overtime.
“It’s really frustrating losing a game on an offside,” said Habs coach Michel Therrien. “Those things are not supposed to happen. I thought our players, our team, got a great effort. You can¹t ask for a better effort. But to lose a game because of an offside?
“It’s not like a penalty. A penalty’s always a judgment call, so you can always question the judgment and there’s nothing you can do. But an offside is black or white. And it was clearly an offside. End up losing the game.”
The emotions were understandable after more than 82 minutes of tightly contested hockey. It was one of those games where it was unfortunate that either team had to lose.
But after watching Carey Price and Ben Bishop match one another save for save despite facing a number of dangerous chances you couldn’t help but think we’re going to be in for a long series.
This is clearly a much different Tampa team than a year ago, when a relatively inexperienced group came unglued in Game 3 here after the referees controversially overturned a Ryan Callahan goal by ruling Alex Killorn interfered with Price.
At the very same end of the Bell Centre ice, the Lightning lost a potential Kucherov winner early in the first overtime when it was deemed he knocked Price into the net along with the puck on a breakaway. This time, they kept their composure, and No. 86 eventually scored one that counted.
“That’s the definition of irony right there,” said Tampa coach Jon Cooper.
“It’s fun, made the fans frustrated,” added Kucherov. “Fun to see the fans go home unhappy. It feels great.”
There was a feeling of euphoria in the air on a beautiful spring day in the spiritual home of hockey. The building was bouncing on its foundation, especially early on with the Canadiens carrying play.
Goals have not come easily in these playoffs for Montreal — it’s now totalled 13 in eight-plus games — and Bishop didn’t make the task any less difficult.
He came within inches himself of posting another clean performance, somehow whiffing on an innocent Max Pacioretty shot with about five minutes to play in regulation. The puck bounced in and out of his glove in troubling fashion, but he refused to blink.
“It didn’t bother me that much,” said Bishop. “I felt I was playing pretty well. You’d like to have it back. I played baseball for a lot of years, so it’s kind of disappointing.”
Despite the blooper, his highlight reel was full. Bishop denied Pacioretty on a short-handed breakaway and stacked the pads to rob Tomas Plekanec on a 2-on-1. There was also a great sprawling stop on Brendan Gallagher.
“Clearly he was on tonight,” Cooper said of his goalie. “He brought the two-pad stack back into style with that save on Plekanec. That’s an unreal save. That’s a game-changer right there.”
However, as in every hockey game, there was also a degree of luck.
Bishop benefitted from two shots that hit the post in the opening period and left a big chunk of net open in double overtime, only to see Dale Weise fire high and wide.
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Montreal’s spark plug has authored a number of memorable moments the last couple years, including an overtime winner against the Lightning last spring, and went home thinking about his near-miss.
“Absolutely,” said Weise. “I kind of practice that one in practice every day, so I’ve got to score that one. That’s the way it happens.”
As the playoffs grind on, the margin for error is miniscule. The gap between success and failure, elation and frustration, is razor-thin in a 2-1 game that ends in the fifth period.
All that separated Tampa and Montreal in the regular season was two points in the standings and that was reflected in a fast, fun Game 1 here.
“You want to know why both these teams have 50 wins? A big reason is they’re both sitting in the blue paint at each end,” said Cooper. “And that’s why you’re probably going to see all these games go down to what happened tonight.”
Inches. They’re all going to matter in a series likely to be decided in the margins.