NHL
2020–21 Stanley Cup Finals Review
Tampa Bay Lightning won their back-to-back Stanley Cup against a hockey giant, the Montreal Canadiens.
The very different 2020/21 NHL season is finally over. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the regular season was reduced to 56 games and started in January 2021, with the divisions realigned into four. The restriction travel over the U.S. and Canadian border caused all the seven Canadian teams to be put in the same division. But none of this reduced the attractiveness of the NHL. The NHL Outdoor Games remained an iconic staple of the regular season as games were played at Lake Tahoe between the Vegas Golden Knights against the Colorado Avalanche and the Boston Bruins against the Philadelphia Flyers.
At the end of the regular season, four teams from each division played in the intra-division playoff series and the winners represented their own division in the Stanley Cup Semifinals. The Golden Knights and the Avalanche looked like they were too strong for the other teams in the West division. The Golden Knights defeated the Avalanche to advance to the semifinals.
The Tampa Bay Lightning succeeded in keeping their chance to retain their title after defeating the Florida Panthers in the battle of Florida in the first round and the Carolina Hurricanes in the next round to represent the Central Division in the semifinals.
The Boston Bruins failed to make the classic rivalry matchup with the Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup Finals after they lost to the New York Islanders. The Montreal Canadiens, the playoff team with the worst ranking in the standings, shocked a lot of hockey fans as they won the North Division series. They pulled an outstanding comeback win against the Toronto Maple Leafs and swept the Winnipeg Jets.
The Tampa Bay Lightning faced the New York Islanders again in the same round of last season’s playoffs. The Islanders failed to exact revenge for last season’s loss and let the Lightning advance to their second straight finals in two straight seasons. The same thing occurred to the Vegas Golden Knights. After they lost against the Dallas Stars last season, this season they couldn’t stop the miracle journey of the Canadiens. The defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning would face the most surprising team, the Montreal Canadiens in the 2021 Stanley Cup Finals.
GAME 1: The Canadiens’ stage fright and Ben Chiarot’s nightmare.
The Montreal Canadiens will have the franchise’s first appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals since 1993. Except for Corey Perry, Joel Edmundson, Michael Frolik, Tyler Toffoli, and Eric Staal, who all have been to the finals with their previous teams, this will be the first time for the rest of the Canadiens’ roster to play on this stage of the competition. Many fans expected what they have done up to their win against the Vegas Golden Knights can be repeated in their series against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the reigning Stanley Cup champion.
Both teams were fighting for space to create chances and the game itself was even until the end of the second period. Unfortunately for the Habs’ Ben Chiarot, after giving hope for his team to make the score 2–1 behind Tampa Bay, he made a costly mistake that extended the Bolts’ lead. In the second minute of the third period, in anticipation of Nikita Kucherov’s pass to the center, the puck got deflected by Chiarot’s upper body before the Lightning’s Ondrej Palat tipped it easily to make the score 3–1 for Tampa Bay. That was a huge momentum shift for the Bolts, who dominated the rest of Game 1 and won it with a final score of 5–1.
GAME 2: Vasilevskiy the Savior in Bolts’ second win.
After being defeated in Game 1, the Canadiens had to win in Game 2 to relieve some burden off their backs in the upcoming games. The Habs looked so promising as they challenged the Bolts’ goalie, Andrei Vasilveskiy, with 13 shots on goal (SoG). Entering the second period, the Habs still dominated with three additional SoGs. But the Bolts scored the opening goal with their eighth shot, from the confusing attack scenario in the left side behind the Habs’ net.
Tyler Johnson passed the puck off the wall to Anthony Cirelli, who released a perfect wrist shot through Montreal’s goalie Carey Price. The Canadiens responded with an outstanding backhand shot far from the goal by Nick Suzuki to tie the score. The Bolts really knew how to utilize an important momentum and use it to win the game. Blake Coleman dove to tip the puck from Barclay Goodrow’s pass with his body into the net to close the second period with Tampa Bay leading 2–1.
The Canadiens then dominated the third period. Many shots went toward the Bolts’ goal that was protected by Andrei Vasilevskiy, but he saved them all. Unfortunately, The Canadiens seemed to experience déjà vu in this game. A Habs’ defenseman made a similar costly mistake as they did in Game 1. Joel Edmundson gave a wrong pass and Tampa Bay’s Ondrej Palat took that puck and scored to give a 3–1 lead for the Bolts when the game only had four minutes left. The Canadiens couldn’t score any goal and the Bolts won Game 2.
The picture above shows the Habs’ domination in Game 2. They did 43 SoGs compared to only 23 SOGs by the Bolts. It’s reasonable for Andrei Vasilevskiy to be Game 2’s MVP with his 42 saves.
GAME 3: The Underperformance of Carey Price.
The Stanley Cup Finals returned to the city of Montreal for the first time since 1993. Expectations were high for the Habs as the hometown team after their heartbreaking losses in the first two games. Also, Pierre Durchame, the Canadiens’ head coach was returning after his absence due to COVID-19 protocol.
Unfortunately for the team, the Bell Centre only allowed 3,500 fans out of the 20,000 seats the arena has to watch the game according to the local government policy. Where there could’ve been additional moral support for the Canadiens in normal times, instead they had to play in this new stage by themselves without the support of their home crowd
Game 3 really showed the difference between both teams. This game was a high-scoring affair with each period having a score of 2–1 The Bolts scored two goals in the first and second period in the interval of just four minutes to show this team’s experience in playing in the finals. On the other hand, the Habs’ veteran goalie, Carey Price, underperformed in those moments.
This heat map from Game 3 shows that the Habs were wider in playing area compared to the Bolts. The blue color on the Bolts’ heat map indicates the area they often took the shot from, which was mostly in the top slot area, where the highest value of the expected goal was. Compared to the Habs’ heat map, where the orange color is more dispersed, making it easier for the puck to be blocked by the Lightning players or saved by Vasilevskiy.
GAME 4: Josh Anderson, A Man on a Mission.
Many fans at this point predicted the Bolts would sweep the Habs. When the faceoff in the first period started, it might as well be true as the Bolts had 10 SoGs without any responses by the Habs. Suddenly, Montreal’s Josh Anderson scored the goal that brought the Habs leading over the Bolts for the first time in this series. Another outstanding performance came from the Habs’ Alexander Romanov, who scored the Habs’ second goal just after entering the shift for around five seconds.
The Bolts tied the score twice in Game 4, but they failed to score any power-play goals in the five chances they got. The critical moment of this game was the Bolts being in power-play for five minutes in the opening of the overtime period but failing to score any goals. Additionally, the Habs got a chance to steal a short-handed goal but it was denied by Vasilevskiy. Josh Anderson suddenly came in at the right moment to skate through the left side and created a chance in front of Vasilevskiy. A scrimmage occurred before Anderson won it for the Habs in overtime.
GAME 5: A Win for the back-to-back Stanley Cup Champion.
The Bolts started Game 5 just like they have the entire series right from the first faceoff. They dominated the Habs and forced Jeff Petry to commit a penalty just four minutes into the first period. No goals were scored despite the Bolts having 13 SoGs to the Habs’ four. This game was relatively balanced if only based on the statistics during the game.
The difference in this game came from an outstanding move by the Bolts’ rookie, Ross Colton.
The Bolts’ Ryan McDonagh got the puck after a scrimmage. He saw a huge space in front of Habs goalie Carey Price and Rose Colton making an initiative to move towards the space. McDonagh gave the puck to Ryan Savard to pull the Habs’ remaining two skaters to the left and give bigger space for Colton in front of the goal.
This was what happened after McDonagh gave the puck to Savard. A bigger space was created for Savard to release a wrist shot, and Colton stood in front of the Habs’ Edmundson for the chance to tip the puck in from Savard’s shot. What an outstanding scheme by the Bolts to create easy chances in front of the net!
This is the third Stanley Cup in franchise history for the Tampa Bay Lightning and they also become the first team that had back-to-back wins since the Pittsburgh Penguins did it in 2016 and 2017. Despite their loss in the finals, this was an incredible season for the Habs that finally made it into the finals after 28 years. Congratulations to the Tampa Bay Lightning and great job for the Montreal Canadiens!
