Habs have ‘best’ to beat
Surprising Canadiens know Lightning are toughest test
MONTREAL — Artturi Lehkonen is keeping his composure after becoming part of the Canadiens’ illustrious history by scoring the franchise’s most important goal in nearly three decades.
If the upstart Canadiens’ remarkable playoff run has been fueled, in part, by a desire to earn respect, then their journey isn’t yet complete.
The team with the worst record of the NHL’s 16 playoff qualifiers now has the daunting task of facing the defending champion Lightning in the Stanley Cup Final, which opens Monday in Tampa, Florida.
“We’ve got a lot of confidence,” Lekhonen said Saturday, two days after his overtime goal sealed a 3-2 win over the Golden Knights in Game 6 of the semifinals and vaulted the Canadiens to their first Cup Final appearance since winning their 24th title in 1993.
“I’ve received a lot of messages after that, but can’t get too hyped up about it yet,” the 25-year-old checking line forward added. “If you want to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best.”
The Lightning are as good as they come in advancing to the championship round for the third time since 2015, and following a 1-0 win over the Islanders in Game 7 of their semifinal series Friday.
The Lightning are 13-0 when coming off a playoff loss in winning seven straight series, and became the fourth team in the NHL’s salary-cap era to repeat as a finalist. They feature a playoff-experienced lineup which includes goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, who has posted shutouts in four straight series-clinching wins. The run dates to the Lightning’s 2-0 win over the Stars in Game 6 of last year’s final.
Canadiens forward Corey Perry wasn’t interested in revisiting what happened last year during his one season with the Stars.
And yet, he’s more familiar than any of his teammates when it comes to assessing the Lightning, considering the NHL was limited to inter-division play only this year.
“You look up and down their lineup ... you can talk about them all day long,” Perry said.
“They added grit at the deadline last year, and kind of taken off,” he added. “We’re excited for this opportunity. We’re here for a reason. They’re here for a reason.”
The teams haven’t met since the Lightning completed a four-game season-series sweep of the Canadiens with a 4-0 win in Tampa on March 5, 2020. The Canadiens are 2-8-2 in their last 12 meetings and 0-5-1 in Tampa since a 2-1 overtime win on April 1, 2017.
The Lightning have a 2-1 playoff series edge over the Canadiens, including a six-game second-round win in their previous meeting in 2015.
Both teams are similar in how their respective GMs remade their rosters by adding size and playoff experience to offset past playoff collapses.
Last year, Julien Brisebois’ additions of Pat Maroon, Barclay Goodrow and Blake Coleman played key roles on a
Lightning team coming off an embarrassing four-game, first-round loss to the Blue Jackets in 2019.
“It was all building blocks to get here,” coach Jon Cooper said, referring to the Lightning’s past playoff failures. “But we haven’t won the Cup this year, we’re chasing it just like Montreal.”
This year, the Canadiens’ Marc Bergevin made similar moves in adding forwards Perry, Tyler Toffoli and Eric Staal, and defenseman Joel Edmundson — all former Cup winners — to a team that had won four playoff series (including a preliminary round last year) since 2011.
The Canadiens, who swept the Jets in the second round, have won 11 of 13 games since falling behind 3-1 in the first round to the Maple Leafs. And the Canadiens keep winning despite having interim coach Dominique Ducharme spending the last week in self-isolation after testing positive for COVID-19.
Assistant Luke Richardson is filling in for Ducharme, who’s expected to return for Game 3 on Friday in Montreal.
“For sure, when we talk about adversity, they faced adversity. They went through some ups and downs and learned from it,” Ducharme said of the Lightning. “There’s a reason why they’re back in the Final this year.”
The Canadiens have the respect of Lightning captain Steven Stamkos.
“They’re going to get the best team that they’ve played so far, and we’re going to get the best team that we’ve played so far,” Stamkos said. “You don’t get to the finals by luck.”