Ben Bishop already knew he could beat the Montreal Canadiens – with an exclamation point. What he didn’t know was how he’d feel to begin a playoff series inside the Bell Centre. But Detroit took care of that. Because as Bishop clearly struggled with nerves to begin Game 7 in Tampa Bay Wednesday night, the Red Wings let him off the hook. And as he gained confidence with each passing minute and shot he was also setting himself up for the opening game of Round Two.
If Bishop could post a shutout in Game 7 (what did happen to Henrik Zetterberg?) – joining Carey Price as the only NHL goalies to record a shutout in their first ever Game 7 start – then why should the Canadiens cause him problems?
Turns out the Habs made him work harder than in any of his previous starts against Montreal but he picked up right where he left off in Tampa Bay, while extending his shutout streak to over 153 minutes before his glove failed him.
Bishop is now 6-0 against Montreal this season. Career wise he’s 11-1-2 with a goals against average of less than 1.5 and a save percentage of over .940. If slumbering Montreal forwards – hello there Alex – are looking for one more opprtunity to awaken then Game Two might be their last, best shot. The Lightning goaltender has a career save percentage of .911 on Sundays.
Bishops do tend to rest on the seventh day.
THE GOOD
- Max Pacioretty. Might be the best game I’ve ever seen him play. He played like a man possessed – long before his shot bounced out of Bishop’s glove to tie the game with just over five minutes to play. Pacioretty played hard and fast with a purpose at both ends of the ice from beginning to end. He played like a captain.
- Carey Price. Just how many 1-0 games do the Habs think Price can win?
- Brendan Gallagher. If he only had the hands to match his heart.
- Tomas Plekanec. Habs top line was the best trio on the ice. Turns out they needed to score more than once. How many times this summer will Plekanec sudenly break into a cold sweat with visions of Bishop’s pads and glove stacked in front of him?
- Lars Eller. This is how you make a name for yourself – and erase the memories of long stretches of nothing during the regular season. Eller played a career high 24:50. He had several great shifts and twice appeared close to ending the game in overtime – the first through a well placed shot through several bodies that Bishop managed to find and the other when he fired, again from well out, but his stick exploded. Eller was again dominant in the face off circle winning 17 of 25 draws (68%).
- P.K. Subban. Played nearly 38:00. Tireless. But spent just a little too much time dancing around the ice looking for the perfect play. Excellent long pass to Pacioretty to set up the game tying goal.
- Jeff Petry. Like Eller, Petry played a career high 30:49. Imagine the Habs defense corps without him. Looked seriously injured when he took a shot off the inside of his knee at the end of the first period. Then took another shot in the dressing room to be able to start the second.
- P.A. Parenteau. “He has poise with the puck” said his coach when Parenteau returned to the Habs lineup against Ottawa. I thought he’d be lost against a fast team like Tampa. But when he did have time in the Lightning zone he did something with it. He created a couple of turnovers – or outright steals – in the third period and made perfect passes to Subban (wrist shot…deflected…saved by Bishop) and David Desharnais but neither of them could capitalize.
- Physical Play. The Habs don’t normally go there but they racked up 43 hits in an effort to slow down a Tampa Bay team that doesn’t like the rough stuff. It’s clear which players have been told to play the body ( Hit Totals: Devante Smith-Pelly -8, Dale Weise -7, Brandon Prust -6, Alexei Emelin -5.). What remains to be seen is if the series lasts long enough for the hits to take effect.
- Michel Therrien. Had his team ready. Hard to imagine them playing better for over 80 minutes. They controlled the play against a team they’ve been dominated by. But still coudln’t win. Seems to have one game left to solve this riddle.
Offside? Oh yeah. pic.twitter.com/KxnHFOXKVN
— scott lewis (@thescottlewis) May 2, 2015
- Michel Therrien. I don’t blame Therrien for pointing out that the winning goal was offside. There isn’t a coach in the NHL who woudn’t reference it after losing a game like that. But he did so without taking questions about getting stuck with his 4th line on the ice against a dangerous threat like Kucherov (Therrien would no doubt counter with something about how he trusts all his lines. And indeed the players on the line are normally defensively responsible. But they failed). Or perhaps he was just deflecting attention away from a rookie defenseman who mucked up. And he never did get asked about the continuing failure of the power play.
- Power Play. It was tweaked with Petry moving alongside Subban on the back end. And there was good movement and pressure during their first opportunity midway through the second period when Ryan Callahan was sent off for holding (penalty drawn by Eller). But as we’ve seen for about a year and a half – if they don’t score on their first power play chance the unit seems to sag and it goes from bad to worse. Now 1-23. That’s a franchise embarrassing 4.4%.
- Torrey Mitchell. Rough night for the 4th line center. He won just 6 of 13 face offs (46%) while being stuck on the ice for both goals against. More importantly, he lost a puck battle to Brian Boyle in the corner of the rink behind the Habs net which helped set up the winning goal.
- Greg Pateryn. Coughed up the puck to Valtterri Filppula who then fed Kucherov to end the game. Spoiled what otherwise had been a solid night for the Habs rookie. Sweet justice for the Lightning who thought they had ended the game a period earlier when Kucherov’s breakaway goal was disallowed after referee Eric Furlatt ruled that the Tampa winger had pushed Price’s pad into the net after Price had made the original save.
- Andrei Markov. Meh. Better than Ottawa but it’s two straight games and three of the last four that the normally offensively effective Markov failed to register a shot on goal.
- Steve Miller. Veteran NHL linesman blew a call at a critical time. Which means he’ll get rewarded by working in Round 3. There will be more moments like this coming up. And the NHL will pretend it’s not an issue even as MLB blew by them a year ago on the technology front. Miller will try to make amends when he brings his band into Montreal to headline at the Jazz Festival on June 26th.
- Alex Galchenyuk. Rock bottom?
@HunterZThompson some will say it’s because of Therrien.
— Mathieu Tremblay (@akamatraque) May 1, 2015
@HunterZThompson ur such an MT lover and Galchen hater!
— bobby dollas (@bobbydollas1) May 2, 2015
I love Galchenyuk. But he’s playing like shit. https://t.co/syOfvE9gLH
— Mitch Melnick (@HunterZThompson) May 2, 2015
