Lightning at Canadiens Game Six Preview: Just win

Game Six: Tampa Bay Lightning (2-3) at Montreal Canadiens (3-2)

Time: 7:00 PM EST

Location: Centre Bell, Montreal (Saw an excellent Oasis concert there once)

TV/Stream/Radio: The Spot, ESPN2, ESPN+, 102.5 FM, Lightning App

Odds: Lightning -115

Know the Opponents: Habs Eye on the Prize

Win or go home. It’s that simple. Actually, if you think about it, it’s win and go home as well. It’s just a matter of the mood on the flight back to Tampa. A victory and the Lightning head back to Benchmark with a little momentum and a Game 7 on home ice. With a loss, it’s a quiet flight that kicks off a summer of questioning.

If nothing else, the Lightning have been preparing for this all season long. They have dipped their toes in adversity pretty much from the get go, always finding a way to pull back from the flames of destruction at the last moment. Can they pull off the magic trick one more time on a Friday night in Montreal?

We can ramble on for a thousand words or more about the ways the Lightning can go about beating the Montreal Canadiens, but in the end it doesn’t matter how they do it, they just have to do it. It’s time they find the better in them and produce the offense that their talents possess.

Will there be line-up changes? We saw Montreal switch things up for Game Five and it paid off fairly early with Brendan Gallagher opening the scoring. Do the Lightning have a player they can throw in the line-up that can make a difference? Honestly, probably not. They are putting the best version of their team on the ice, they just need those players to find a way to execute better.

That’s what it all boils down to. So far, through five games, the Canadiens have been able execute better than the Lightning. There have just been a few too many plays bogged down in the offensive zone by a missed pass or a poor read. With Montreal’s dedication to clogging up the middle of the ice and blocking shots, the plays have to be crisper, and the puck has to move quicker than it has for the majority of the series.

Montreal is going to come out quick and keep the Lightning on their heels. Will they be a little too aggressive and leave spaces for counterattacks? Possibly, but if it does happen, the Lightning absolutely need to take advantage. Stats don’t matter right now. Analytics don’t matter. They just have to find a way to end the game with more goals than the Canadiens.

One way to catch a team pressing for offense is with long stretch passes. You know who does that better than anyone else currently in a Lightning uniform? Victor Hedman. For all of his struggles this season, no one gets the pass from zone to zone better than The Big Swede. Could he make his debut tonight? Possibly, but you would have to wonder if his presence, and lack of recent playing time, would have Coach Jon Cooper leaning toward an 11/7 line-up to shelter his minutes and ward off the possibiity he can’t play an entire game.

No matter what the look is for the Lightning, it’s time for the big players to make some big moments. Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point, Andrei Vasilevskiy. They have to be the Lightning’s best players tonight. Depth is nice, but it’s neutralized if they’re the only ones scoring.

The funny thing about this series is that if/when the Lightning win tonight, they are probably going to be a heavy favorite in Game Seven. Heck, they’re a slight favorite for this game (at least at the time of writing) which is bizarre for how this series has played out through five games.

Experience doesn’t matter at this point. Youth doesn’t matter. Heck, nothing that’s happened prior to today really matters. The Lightning just need to focus on the moment. If they can do that, they can stretch the season out a little bit longer.

Potential Lines

Tampa Bay Lightning

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Montreal Canadiens

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