Bolts By The Bay is taking a closer look at some of the Tampa Bay Lightning’s notable opponents throughout the season. Today, we look at the Montreal Canadiens.
Le Club de hockey Canadiens has been around the league for a while. Founded in 1909 and then moving to the NHL in 1917, the Canadiens are one of the 6 founding teams of the league, known as the “Original Six”.
With 100 years comes experience, stories, records, and plenty of ways to rub people the wrong way. In recent years, they haven’t been the dominating force they were when the NHL only consisted of 6 teams, but they’re regularly a contender for the top spot in the Eastern Conference nonetheless.
Reasons to like them:
The Montreal Canadiens have more history in them than just about any other team in the league. With this comes some of the best stories in the NHL. There’s even a league-wide trophy named after one of their players that’s given every year at the NHL awards.
Tampa Bay Lightning
As a franchise, they’re basically hockey royalty, even if they aren’t the dominant team anymore that they have been in years past. They’ve also royally messed themselves up on cap space for years to come with extensions and long-term contracts this offseason.
The average yearly payout of Carey Price‘s new 8 YEAR contract is $10.5 million. Pair that with Shea Weber‘s yearly cap hit of $7,857,143 and Jonathan Drouin‘s $5,500,000 cap hit and there’s about 32% of their total cap space gone on 3 players.
Keep in mind this is guaranteed (barring any trades or buyouts, neither of which seem likely) until AT LEAST the 2022-2023 season. Good luck signing any new talent to fill the rest of your roster.
Reasons to hate them:
Have you ever tried to talk hockey with a Habs fan? Chances are, they’ve brought up the number of Stanley Cups they’ve won. Yes yes, 24 is a lot. We agree this is impressive. But how many of those were pre-1975? (20 of the 24 including the one won in 75). The last time the Canadiens won the Stanley Cup, the Lightning
The last time the Canadiens won the Stanley Cup, the Lightning was playing their inaugural season, George H.W. Bush was president, and Wayne’s World was in theatres. Yikes. Past Stanley Cup wins do not equal modern dominance.
There’s also some bad blood between the Lightning and the Canadiens. This is natural and unavoidable as they are both dominant teams in the Eastern Conference. The Canadiens have definitely beaten up on the Lightning in the past.
If you’re like me, you probably still hold a grudge against them for sweeping the Lightning in the first round of the 2014 playoffs (2015 was payback). The tides have ebbed and flowed between the two, and the trade of Jonathan Drouin definitely won’t make relations between the two teams any better. That situation can be traced all the way to Drouin’s big pout in the beginning of 2016, and It’s impossible for that entire situation to leave a good taste in the mouth of any Lightning fan.
Analysis:
The Canadiens are good. It’s been a long time since they haven’t been good. Their backbone is the incredible play of modern-day goalie legend Carey Price. If he can stay healthy and performs at his best, it’s like the hockey gods sent a brick wall to punish whoever the Canadiens are playing. However, as proven recently, if Carey Price isn’t healthy or isn’t playing his best the Canadiens fold like a house of cards.
Not unlike the Lightning, the Canadiens season will largely depend on health. If their stars are injured, it could be an abysmal season. If everyone stays healthy and plays at expected levels, the Canadiens might be able to make it past the first round this year.
While the Habs have the goaltending category on lockdown, they aren’t deep with scoring talent and their defense is hit or miss. Maybe Shea Weber really settles in this year and really finds his groove. Then again, maybe he doesn’t. Tampa’s deep scoring talent and (mostly) deep defensive core will be what set the two apart and boost the Bolts above the Habs in the standings.
However, the two teams will split the season series right down the middle and take home two wins apiece. Last season, two of the team’s four games were decided in overtime and I don’t expect things to be different this season.
Next: Lightning F J.T. Brown has not ruled out ‘taking a knee’
These games have always been ones to watch and nothing will change there either. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a rivalry, but the Lightning/Canadiens matchup is usually just a little sweeter than normal games.