Don’t count out underdog Habs, a team that thrives on adversity Canadiens have spent run to Stanley Cup Final proving doubters wrong By: Mike McIntyre Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Tuesday, Jun. 29, 2021

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/06/2021 (1277 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MONTREAL — Go figure that an unsettled weather system spent much of Tuesday parked over southern Quebec, bringing showers and storms to the region.

After all, it had been nothing but sunshine and rainbows around here lately, at least metaphorically speaking. But when the Montreal Canadiens got hit by Lightning on Monday night, dropping a convincing 5-1 decision down in Tampa Bay in the opener of the Stanley Cup Final, you could almost feel the mood shifting in the blink of an eye.

Mother Nature apparently decided to add to the pity party, with more gloomy conditions expected in the coming days.

No, a single loss in a best-of-seven series doesn’t automatically rain on the possibility of a championship parade. I’ll remind you Montreal fell behind 1-0 in the semi-final against Vegas, only to win four of the next five games to punch their ticket to the promised land. But it certainly dampens the chances, especially when the opponent is as deep and dangerous as the one the Canadiens is facing.

Tampa coach Jon Cooper said he thought his team “had more to give” in the aftermath of his club making it look rather easy as they try to go back-to-back. If true, that’s a pretty scary thought for the Canadiens, who turned the puck over far too often, couldn’t generate much offence of their own and received a rare average outing from goaltender Carey Price.

They’re going to need to be a heck of a lot better in all departments, and they know it.

“The positive is we didn’t play our best game,” said Montreal assistant coach Luke Richardson, who will be in charge for one more outing before Dominique Ducharme can emerge from COVID-19 quarantine and resume his duties.

If there’s one consolation for Montreal, they have recent history on their side, having overcome the odds multiple times already during this magical run. And, as the old saying goes, you’re never really in trouble in a playoff series until you lose a game on home ice. The Canadiens still have a shot to salvage something out of this initial foray into Florida when the puck drops Wednesday for Game 2 at Amalie Arena.

The series will then shift north for Game 3 on Friday night, where a raucous crowd of yet-to-be-determined size will welcome them back to the Bell Centre. And that’s an intriguing storyline to keep an eye on.

Montreal currently has permission from local government and health officials to host 3,500 fans, including for Wednesday’s game in Tampa Bay which will be shown on the big screen, but they’ve made a formal request to expand to as much as 10,500, which is 50 per cent capacity. There hasn’t been any requirement for those spectators to be fully vaccinated, but the organization said they are willing to ask for proof if that provides an extra level of comfort.

France Margaret Bélanger, the club’s executive vice-president and chief commercial officer, claimed Tuesday there hasn’t been a single known case of transmission linked to attending hockey games in the rink, which began late in the first round against Toronto with 2,500 allowed before increasing as the playoffs continued. Mask use in mandatory, and 14 separate entrances are being utilized to keep people apart as much as possible.

Quebec got hit extremely hard in the early days of the pandemic, but they’ve also been among the first in Canada to reap the benefits of scaled-down restrictions as they work towards a return to normal. Thousands of people gathered outside the downtown rink on Monday night for an unofficial watch party, a scene that would have been unimaginable just a few months ago.

Now, they want to bring as many of those people inside as they can — along with the obvious revenues that would generate for the coffers that have remained mostly empty for the past 15 months and counting.

I suspect plenty of sporting eyes across Canada are watching right now to see how this plays out.

Funny enough, the request has a bit of an unlikely supporter in Cooper, the Lightning bench boss. You’d think he’d relish the chance to keep the Canadiens crowds as small and quiet as possibly and truly have a home-ice advantage, with the Lightning playing in front of 16,300 fans on Monday night and again Wednesday.

You’d be wrong.

“I hope they let more fans in there,” Cooper said earlier this week. “The fans of Quebec, they haven’t been back (in the Cup Final) since ’93, they deserve to watch their team play. I hope they get in there because… this game was meant to be played in front of fans.”

It’s easy to see how much this means to the locals, with supportive signs and flags on seemingly every street corner downtown. Hockey is religion around here, no doubt. But I suspect there’s also a cathartic element to all of this, a chance to finally celebrate something positive for a change.

This is a team many had counted out when they barely squeaked into the playoffs, winning just seven of their final 21 games, then fell behind 3-1 to Toronto in the opening-round series. But three straight elimination game victories, the first two coming in overtime, kept their season alive.

A second-round sweep of the Winnipeg Jets and the upset victory over Vegas in six games have set the stage as Montreal tries to bring the Stanley Cup back to Canada for the first time since they did it in 1993. But standing in their way is perhaps the closest thing the NHL has right now to a modern-day dynasty in the defending champion Lightning, who showed, at least in Game 1, they are a force to be reckoned with.

Now, another dose of adversity for a Habs team that seems to thrive on it.

Consider this: Of their 24 Stanley Cups, the last three came after they dropped the opener. In 1993 (4-1 loss to Los Angeles, followed by four straight wins). In 1986 (5-2 loss to Calgary before four straight wins). And in 1979 (4-1 loss to the New York Rangers followed by four straight wins).

Maybe the Canadiens have the Lightning right where they want them? Perhaps this is just a coincidence, but the forecast is calling for a return to blue skies by the weekend.

mike.mcintyre@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @mikemcintyrewpg