What we learned from Tampa Bay’s emphatic Game 1 win

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11:34 PM ET

The Tampa Bay Lightning won Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, 5-1, over the Montreal Canadiens on Monday night, in a game that featured odd bounces, some star turns from the Lightning scorers and a shocking number of pucks that got by Carey Price.

Miss any of the game? We’re here with the top takeaways:

More: Cup Final schedule | Playoff Central

Stanley Cup Final Game 1 in 10 words or less

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Player of the game: Nikita Kucherov, Tampa Bay Lightning

The leading scorer in the playoffs built on his totals with a three-point night, factoring in on three goals as the Lightning turned a one-goal game into a 5-1 blowout. He scored two consecutive goals and assisted on Steven Stamkos‘s power-play tally as an exclamation point.

What worked for Tampa Bay?

Mostly everything. The Lightning scored the first goal in a battle of teams that excel when striking first. (Tampa Bay is now 13-2 when doing so; Montreal remains 11-2 when it scores first.) From there, it was a quintessential Lightning effort: Scoring with their depth, scoring with their stars and using a smothering defense to hold the Canadiens to 19 shots and one goal, in front of another Andrei Vasilevskiy argument for playoff MVP honors.

What didn’t work for Montreal?

The Canadiens had some horrible puck luck, but they also weren’t able to get the equalizer after cutting the Lightning lead to 2-1 in the second period. Had they found a way to get another one past Vasilevskiy before the Lightning were able to extend their lead, this might be a much different result. But in Game 1, the Canadiens learned quite quickly how this Tampa Bay team can beat you in a variety of ways if you don’t take advantage of the small openings its gives you to rally.

The goals

Tampa Bay 1-0: Erik Cernak (Ondrej Palat, Brayden Point) 6:19, first period

Brayden Point made a great defensive play to break up a Canadiens rush into the Lightning zone, as Brayden Point does. He passed the puck to Cernak, and the defenseman rushed up the ice on a 3-on-3. He passed to Ondrej Palat, and here is where the Canadiens’ defensive breakdown occurs: Both forward Tyler Toffoli and defenseman Ben Chiarot went to defend Palat, allowing Cernak to cut right to the net. He lunged ahead of Montreal defenseman Jeff Petry and deflected Palat’s centering pass behind Carey Price for the 1-0 lead. It was only the fourth first-period goal the Canadiens allowed in 10 postseason road games.

Tampa Bay 2-0: Yanni Gourde (Blake Coleman, Barclay Goodrow) 5:47, second period

Tough one for Carey Price. Barclay Goodrow’s shot was blocked by Chiarot and the puck bounced right to Blake Coleman for the quick shot before Price was set. But then he had no chance to make the stop when Coleman’s shot deflected off Yanni Gourde and into the net. A bit of a delayed double-doink, as it were.

Montreal 1-2: Ben Chiarot (Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Shea Weber) 17:40, second period

Get a bounce, give a bounce. The Canadiens scored their first of the series after Chiarot — a factor on all three goals to this point of the game — had his point shot blocked by Anthony Cirelli … and the puck deflected directly off the skate of Ryan McDonagh and behind Andrei Vasilevskiy to slice the Lightning lead in half. It was Chiarot’s first career playoff goal in 52 postseason games.

Tampa Bay 3-1: Nikita Kucherov (Mikhail Sergachev) 2:00, third period

Price once again gets beaten off a bad bounce, and Chiarot factors into his fourth goal of the game — for better or worse. This time, Chiarot tried to knock the puck away with his left hand … and he ended up deflecting it right past Price for the Bolts’ third goal. Initially it looked like it might be Ondrej Palat’s goal on a deflection, but replay confirmed it was an own-goal by Chiarot.

Tampa Bay 4-1: Nikita Kucherov (Brayden Point) 11:25, third period

We finally get a goal that didn’t have a deflection and had nothing to do with Ben Chiarot, but yet another deflection leading to a score. Point won the draw back to Kucherov, who took a quick shot that beat Price cleanly for his second goal of the night.

Tampa Bay 5-1: Steven Stamkos (Brayden Point, Nikita Kucherov) (power play) 18:50, third period

The Lightning capped their scoring on the power play, as Stamkos scored on one-timer from the left side for his eighth of the playoffs, with Kucherov and Point earning the assists.

Save of the night

Price had his share of fantastic stops on Lightning chances, but it doesn’t get better than a mano-a-mano showdown with Stamkos. One of the best goalies in the world vs. a player with 439 career goals and no defender in sight. The glove save was great. The old-school leg kick made it even better.

The Canadiens provocateur immediately made his presence known in Game 1, trying to cross-check Victor Hedman (who was an immovable object) and then drawing one of the softer calls of the postseason on this Barclay Goodrow cross-check. (Coincidentally, or perhaps not, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said “we’re looking at cross-checking” about three hours before the game.)

Later, Gallagher got into it with Mikhail Sergachev, who wrestled him down to the ice. A helmet-less Gallagher hit his head, came up with blood streaming down his face and left for the trainers’ room. Ugly scene. Gallagher did not return.

Lineup call of the night

The Canadiens got good news when forward Joel Armia was cleared and out of the NHL COVID protocol. They put him on a private play to get him from Montreal to Tampa on Monday. He dressed and took warmup. And then … he didn’t appear in Game 1, as Jake Evans took his place on the team’s fourth line instead.

“The decision was made with the organization and the coaching staff. Joel was sitting at home for a few days and not skating,” said assistant coach Luke Richardson, who is the acting head coach as Dominique Ducharme remains in the COVID protocol. He said they had Armia in warmups to get his blood pumping, but that Jake Evans — playing in his first game since being concussed in Game 1 against Winnipeg — played well.

Quote of the night

“That’s one of the best players in the world. He’s playing like a beast right now. He’s so, so good.”

— Steven Stamkos on winger Nikita Kucherov.

The big question for Game 2: How does Montreal respond?

It’s not like the Canadiens haven’t been in this spot before. Vegas rolled them in Game 1 of the third round, 4-1, and Montreal responded with a 3-2 win in Game 2 to earn the split the Habs needed. This was a night of some unfortunate bounces and uncharacteristic play from Montreal. The bounces, for the most part, they can’t control. Losing the 5-on-5 battle for the first two periods and digging a hole on the scoreboard, they can.

This article was originally published by Espn.com. Read the original article here.
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