MONTREAL \u2014 The circumstances were not exactly the same, but they were pretty close.<\/p>\n
The biggest difference was the Montreal Canadiens entered Game 4 in the first round of the playoffs leading their series with the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 as opposed to being down 2-1 to the Washington Capitals almost exactly a year earlier.<\/p>\n
Last year, Game 4 turned when Capitals forward Tom Wilson obliterated Canadiens defenceman Alexandre Carrier with an open-ice hit. The Canadiens did not like the hit or how they felt the Capitals were embellishing to get some calls. They did not like the officiating in general. After the game, they made their displeasure very clear<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll be careful with my words, but it\u2019s hard to watch some of these calls,\u201d Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said then. \u201cTo me, tonight, a lot of the mandate was about embellishing tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n This year, St. Louis could have said the same thing after the Canadiens lost Game 4 to the Lightning 3-2<\/a>, evening the series at two games apiece and giving home-ice advantage back to Tampa Bay. Game 5 is Wednesday night in Tampa.<\/p>\n It was hard not to look at Lightning superstar Nikita Kucherov writhing in pain after taking a cross-check from Jake Evans and slamming into the boards, with the penalty giving the Lightning a five-on-three advantage for 1:11, then healing in time to take part in that two-man advantage and wonder if he was not selling the call just a little bit.<\/p>\n The Canadiens were certainly wondering that after the game. Defenceman Kaiden Guhle took a big breath when asked about it, presumably to gather himself before answering.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know, I don\u2019t want to give you any bites,\u201d he finally said. \u201cI think you know what I\u2019m going to say about that.\u201d<\/p>\n He didn\u2019t say it, nor did St. Louis, even though you know he was thinking it. No one on the Canadiens did.<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t play a good enough third period. We take three penalties. They\u2019re a veteran team with talent, they know how to make us take penalties,\u201d St. Louis said in French. \u201cYou can\u2019t give the referee a chance to call it. It\u2019s a fine line. When you\u2019re leading, you need to be careful.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey know how to make us take penalties.\u201d St. Louis said it again to close his media availability. He never used the word \u201cembellishment\u201d but it was easy to see what he was getting at. Still, he never used that word, unlike last year.<\/p>\n The Canadiens were leading 2-0 late in the second period when Lightning defenceman Max Crozier leveled Juraj Slafkovsk\u00fd with a massive open-ice hit that felt eerily similar to Wilson\u2019s. The Lightning did not score on the same shift the way the Capitals did then, but they did shortly thereafter, in the final minute of the period. The circumstances were not the same, but the narrative sure could be.<\/p>\n Except the Canadiens don\u2019t seem willing to let it.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re allowed to make a good hit,\u201d Canadiens forward Zack Bolduc said. \u201cWe can do that too. It\u2019s part of the game, and we can\u2019t let a good hit affect our team game, our collective game.\u201d<\/p>\n Officials Wes McCauley and, in particular, Brandon Blandina did not have a great night. Officials are not infallible, and they were fallible in this game, but that is true of many games. What\u2019s important in any game, and more so in the playoffs, is not to give them an opportunity to be fallible.<\/p>\n That means, if you\u2019re Evans, not putting your stick in the small of the back of Kucherov, one of the best players in the world, and allowing him to go crashing into the boards and writhe in pain.<\/p>\n That also means, if you\u2019re Oliver Kapanen, not clipping Dominic James in the face as you\u2019re coming back to defend the rush, which looked to be a phantom penalty but was in fact a legitimate call. It just came earlier than people thought.<\/p>\n Here’s the Kapanen penalty. <\/p>\n When I saw it\u2026I thought obvious high-stick above hashmarks \u2014 and those penalties are being called in all series. Obviously, Canadiens (and their fans) feel arm went up late or actual penalty was ignored\/missed. pic.twitter.com\/fTgS9coIzm<\/a><\/p>\n