TAMPA, FLA. - Boston was halfway buried, too. Boston had been shut out in one game and lost 3-1 in the other, and they were a mess. Undisciplined, couldn't score, trouble. Mark Recchi said, 'It might be a good thing for to to get [to Montreal] and really simplify things, and get more composed than we are now ... and for whatever reason, whether guys are nervous, I'm not sure.' They went to Lake Placid between games, to clear their heads. Their only upside was that they hadn't lost the series, and Milan Lucic hadn't speared anybody in the groin.
The Tampa Bay Lightning held a team meeting after losing Game 2 to the Montreal Canadiens 4-1, because they're down 2-0 in a series which could rapidly spiral away from them. Montreal was a far better team in Game 1, despite the final score. They were better in Game 2. But they weren't close to good enough.
'What's disappointing is not only the outcome of the games, but it's how we've played the game. We know we're a much better team than that,' said Tampa associate coach Rick Bowness. 'The players addressed it after the game amongst themselves. Regardless of the outcome of the game, you've got to play the game the right way. You've got to play the game with a certain amount of intensity that's going to give you the opportunity to win the game.
'I think that's where we're disappointed in ourselves. We haven't thrown our 'A' game at them yet. There's been sporadic play, but not 60 minutes of consistent, playoff intensity type game.
'Michel and his staff have done a great job. That team is very well prepared. They're playing very well. Of the four games we've played them during the regular season, this is the best they've played, but they haven't seen our 'A' game yet.'
'It's simple, we didn't have any energy,' said Lightning forward Cedric Paquette. 'We, I don't know, we had no joy playing. Our bench was dead. We didn't have any intensity. For us that's what's important, if we have no intensity and we're always flat-footed we won't have success. That's what happened the first two games.'
It's points like these that it becomes hard to imagine it going the other way. Tampa has been a mess through the first two games in a dozen ways, big and small. Their goaltending hasn't been great; pucks seem to have a disconcerting habit of hitting Anders Lindback and sliding into the net, and injured starter Ben Bishop isn't expected to be ready until late in the series, at the earliest; he took shots from the coaching staff Friday morning. The Lightning have had trouble in transition, suddenly have trouble cracking Carey Price, and needed to talk it over after two games. That's usually not a good sign.
'The leaders took charge of the team,' said Paquette. 'They just closed the doors and talked about what wasn't going well and what we needed to do. It's good not to wait for the coach to tell us what we need to do all the time.
'Montreal will have a lot of pressure with the fans and the media. Montreal has a rink that's one of the hardest to play in, but for us it's just another rink.'
Boston, of course, overcame the nerves three years ago. They figured out the discipline. (To a point. There were some, er, excesses in that post-season. Ask someone from Vancouver about it.) And they beat Montreal in seven, in overtime. The Canadiens know that the smirk on Brendan Gallagher's face as he cruised by the Tampa bench Friday night could vanish, fast.
'This is going to be the toughest two games of the season for us going back home for sure,' said Subban.
'They've got to go home and deliver,' said Lightning coach Jon Cooper. 'We like the way we've played there. We like the ice, we like the rink, we like the atmosphere. If I was going to pick any rink we can go to and play, we've enjoyed playing in Montreal. The fans are great, they're hockey fans, so it's a lot of fun to play there.'
The Canadiens should win this series. They should win it because they are playing a better possession game so far than they managed during the season. They should win it because the Lightning have less experience, and super-rookie Ondrej Palat is hurt, and the Habs are playing disciplined, composed hockey. They should win it because, right now, they have the better goaltender. The Montreal Canadiens should be able to drive the Boston Bruins crazy in the second round, if it comes to that.
But this is hockey, and the game can switch fast. If Tampa had scored first ... if Price wobbles like he did in Game 1 ... if Steven Stamkos takes over ... if Bishop comes back ... well, like many teams before them, the Canadiens should win this series, and that doesn't matter unless they do.
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