Game Thirty-four: Montreal Canadiens (15-17-3) at Tampa Bay Lightning (20-11-2)
Time: 5:00 PM EST
Location: Amalie Arena, Tampa
TV/Stream/Radio: FDSNSUN, RDS, TSN2, ESPN+, 102.5 FM, Lightning App
Odds: Lightning -265
Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper is never going to apologize for a win. However, he is going to point out that the way the Lightning played last night against the New York Rangers in their 6-2 victory isn’t exactly a method that breeds a long playoff run. They scored on the special teams (which is good) and Andrei Vasilevskiy quietly had one of his best games of the year (also good), but they were absolutely rag-dolled in terms of scoring chances (that’s bad) and shots (that’s kind of bad) at even-strength play.
They had the benefit of going up against a team that has absolutely zero confidence in their play and can’t buy a break in the New York Rangers. Nothing illustrated that more than the Lightning’s second short-handed goal of the night when Mika Zibanejad had a one-timer lined up, ended up misfiring, which immediately led to a two-on-one goal for Anthony Cirelli. When a team is struggling all of those breaks go against them. Credit to the Lightning for taking advantage of the opportunities that were presented.
Now, tonight, things will be a little bit different. Are the Montreal Canadiens a “good” team? We might not be willing to go quite that far right now, but they are a team that is playing pretty good hockey at the moment. While they are lingering just below .500 on their overall record this season, they have won four of their last five games, including a shutout of the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers last night. The good news is that the Bolts won’t face rookie netminder Jakub Dobes, who has yet to allow a goal in his NHL career, but they will face a team that has realized scoring goals is fun.
During this recent five-game stretch they’ve scored 23 goals with a healthy Patrik Laine (5 goals) leading the way. Again, we’re not sure if this is a sign that the Habs have turned things around for good, but they officially reached the “frisky” stage of their rebuild. This is not a team the Lightning can take for granted. If they play the way they did against the Rangers, the puck will end up in the back of the net. Montreal has speed, scoring talent, and confidence right now.
Winning in December is a lot different than winning in May. The focus is more on getting the points a team needs to make it to the playoffs, and on some nights, relying on a goaltender to make 40 saves and getting some momentum-swinging short-handed goals works. That doesn’t usually work in the playoffs, so it would be nice to see the Lightning get back to their style of play and control the puck a little more than they did against the Rangers.
The good news is that Jake Guentzel, who missed the last half of the third period, should be in the line-up tonight. Guentzel took a hard spill into the boards following an entry on the power play. While he looked no worse for wear following the hit, the team decided to remove him for precautionary reasons. It wasn’t all bad news for him, though. After the game, the statisticians awarded him a goal after determining Brayden Point’s shot hit Guentzel’s skate before crossing the goal line. That gives the Lightning’s big summer acquisition 20 goals on the season (although it does remove Point from atop the NHL goals column, a spot he shared with Leon Draisaitl).
It would be nice for the Lightning to cap off 2024 with a victory. They’ve been rolling through the month of December by finding multiple paths to victory, but finishing the year with a Lightning-style win featuring strong defense, solid puck control, and contributions from all four lines would be a good sight in the eyes of the coaching staff.
Potential Lines
Tampa Bay Lightning
Forwards:
Jake Guentzel – Brayden Point – Nikita Kucherov
Brandon Hagel – Anthony Cirelli – Conor Geekie
Gage Goncalves – Nick Paul – Mitchell Chaffee
Zemgus Girgensons – Luke Glendening – Cameron Atkinson (?)
Defense:
Victor Hedman – Darren Raddysh
Ryan McDonagh – Erik Cernak
Emil Lilleberg – Nick Perbix
Goaltenders:
Jonas Johanson
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Montreal Canadiens
Forwards:
Cole Caufield – Nick Suzuki – Juraj Slafkovsky
Patrik Laine – Kirby Dach – Alex Newhook
Josh Anderson – Christian Dvorak – Brendan Gallagher
Emil Heineman – Jake Evans – Joel Armia
Defense:
Lane Huston – Mike Matheson
Kaiden Guhle – Alexandre Carrier
Arber Xhekaj – David Savard
Goaltenders:
Sam Montembeault
Jakub Dobes
