Canadiens Notebook: Lightning have chance to win Cup on Montreal ice – Montreal Gazette

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There is only one visiting team that has ever beat the Canadiens on home ice at the Forum to win the Stanley Cup.

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That was the Calgary Flames in 1989 when they won the best-of-seven series in six games, winning Game 6 by a 4-2 score.

The Tampa Bay Lightning have a chance to become the first visiting team to win the Stanley Cup on Montreal ice since then when they play the Canadiens in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final at the Bell Centre (8 p.m., CBC, SN, NBC, TVA Sports, TSN 690 Radio, 98.5 FM). The Lightning have a chance to become the first team to sweep a Stanley Cup Final since 1998 when the Detroit Red Wings won four straight against the Washington Capitals.

“We don’t want to see the Lightning with the Stanley Cup at all,” Canadiens defenceman Jeff Petry said Sunday when asked about the possibility of the Lightning winning the Cup at the Bell Centre. “You’re not going to win four games by winning one tomorrow. Our goal is to win tomorrow’s game and deal with flying out and preparing for a game in Tampa when that time comes. Our focus is to make sure that we play the right way, a strong, hard game and win one game tomorrow.”

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If the Canadiens win Monday night, Game 5 would be Wednesday night in Tampa.

After losing Game 3 by a 6-3 score on Friday night at the Bell Centre, the Canadiens had an off-ice training session Saturday at the Bell Centre and were on the ice for a practice on Sunday.

“I think it helps give us a day yesterday to kind of reset and refresh and then today we were working on a few specialty teams and getting on the ice and had a meeting this morning,” Petry said. “I think it was a good day yesterday to kind of reset, refresh and make sure that we’re ready to take this challenge head on.”

Petry added that the Canadiens are trying to keep the mood light and have a positive attitude heading into Game 4.

“Still have fun coming into this rink every day and not hang our heads,” he said. “We have a big challenge ahead of us. We’ve had a challenging year all year. So just to come in and enjoy it every day has been the message. I think everyone is in good spirits today.”

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The New York Rangers also won the Stanley Cup on Forum ice in 1928, beating the Montreal Maroons to win the best-of-five series 3-2 with a 2-1 victory in Game 5.

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A ‘special group’

This Canadiens team has been through a lot this season, including head coach Claude Julien, associate coach Kirk Muller and goalie coach Stéphane Waite all getting fired.

Joel Armia tested positive for COVID-19 in March, shutting the Canadiens down for more than a week because of NHL protocol. When the Canadiens returned to action, they had to play their final 25 games in 44 days and then they fell behind the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-1 in their first-round playoff series before winning in seven games. They head coach Dominique Ducharme tested positive for COVID-19 and had to spend 14 days in isolation at his Montreal home with assistant coach Luke Richardson taking over the head-coaching duties.

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“I’ve been saying it for a while now, even before the playoffs,” Ducharme said. “During the regular season we faced a lot of adversity and we said — I said — that we have a great group and that group has grown stronger together throughout those moments and adversity and facing those situations. We show it every day and sometimes we lose a game or it doesn’t go exactly like you wanted, but there’s one thing that’s for sure: it’s not a lack of trying, it’s not a lack of will. And our guys are dedicated to the group and they showed that yesterday again, today, and they’re going to put it on the ice tomorrow.”

Josh Anderson said the Canadiens are a “pretty special” group.

“All the guys in this locker room, the management, the staff, the players, it’s a family,” he said. “It’s a bond that the guys have been through a lot during this year and we’ve been through it together, but we’ve stuck together and we’ve made it this far. So we got one more job to do and that’s all to come together and just take it one game at a time and keep chipping away and hopefully we’ll have success and the bounces are going to start going our way.

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“We got nothing to lose at this point so everyone’s going to be ready for tomorrow night, I can tell you that,” Anderson added. “We’re not finished yet, so take it one game at a time and come in tomorrow night ready to play.”

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Working on the power play

The Canadiens spent most of the time at practice Sunday working on the power play and Petry took Erik Gustafsson’s spot on the first unit.

That suggests that Gustafsson might not be in the lineup for Game 4, since the defenceman is considered to be a power-play specialist.

“We’ll see tomorrow,” Ducharme said when asked if Gustafsson would play Monday night. “You guys saw some power-play work today and we’ll see tomorrow about the rest.”

Petry is believed to be playing with two disclocated fingers on his right hand, which has made it difficult for him to shoot the puck.

“I think my injury has gotten better, so it’s given me the ability to shoot the puck better, harder,” he said. “Whether that has to do with it or is it just putting out a (power-play) unit that had worked previously together, that’s something that the coaching staff decided and we got some good reps in this morning. You might get one power play, you might get four. We have to be ready to go on the first one and be sharp and even if we don’t score bring momentum. So I think that was why we worked on it this morning.”

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The Canadiens are 1-for-6 on the power play in this series.

Here’s how the two power-play units looked at Sunday’s practice:

FIRST UNIT

Perry
Caufield – Toffoli – Suzuki
Petry

SECOND UNIT

Staal
Armia – Gallagher – Anderson
Weber

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First goal is huge

The Lightning have scored the first goal in the first three games of this series.

The Canadiens hope to change that in Game 4.

“I think it’s huge against any team,” Ducharme said about scoring first. “Especially it would be something important. But, at the same time, we cannot stop playing if you don’t score the first goal. We want to have a good start. I thought last game it’s not that we had a bad start it’s just they made us pay right away on an icing and a power play — a puck that we threw in the stands. So we need to manage the start the right way, come out dynamic, active, playing our game and getting that first goal for sure would be important.”

The Lightning had a 2-0 lead only 3:27 into Game 3.

Ducharme wants the Canadiens to get back to playing the same way they did in Game 2 when they outshot the Lightning 43-23 but lost 3-1.

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“It’s just that that game we made three or four mistakes and they capitalized on two of them and that made the difference,” he said. “But we’re going to push that to another level. So the adjustment is not major. We know what we need to do and we know it’s about executing. It’s about executing under pressure. It’s about making those plays at the right time and we know how to do it and we’ll do it.”

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The schedule

Here’s the rest of the schedule for the Stanley Cup final:

Monday, July 5 (Game 4): at Montreal, 8 p.m.
x-Wednesday, July 7: at Tampa, 8 p.m.
x-Friday, July 9: at Montreal, 8 p.m.
x-Sunday, July 11: at Tampa, 7 p.m.
x-if necessary

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