KEYS TO THE GAME<\/p>\n
Why not us?<\/p>\n
Winning a Game 7 starts with belief\u2014and the Canadiens should have plenty of it. Montreal has won two of three games in Tampa this series and was one of the NHL\u2019s best road teams all season. So why not one more in the biggest game of the year?<\/p>\n
Follow the leaders<\/p>\n
Six current Habs were on the roster the last time the Canadiens played a Game 7 on May 31, 2021: Josh Anderson, Cole Caufield, Phillip Danault, Jake Evans, Brendan Gallagher, and Nick Suzuki. Combined, they bring 11 games of Game 7 experience. On the other side, Corey Perry\u2014who was also part of that 2021 Canadiens team\u2014has 11 on his own. The edge in experience leans heavily toward Tampa, so Montreal\u2019s young group will look to its leaders to guide the way in a high-pressure moment.<\/p>\n
Block out the noise<\/p>\n
Game 7s don\u2019t come without outside noise\u2013\u2013especially in a market like Montreal\u2013\u2013but it\u2019ll be crucial for the Habs to block out said noise and simply play their game. Not only have they kept pace with the Lightning, but one would argue they\u2019ve outplayed Tampa for large stretches of this series. In fact, the Canadiens have trailed for only about 28 minutes of game time all series. Regardless, Sunday is about going out, trusting their identity and winning a hockey game.<\/p>\n
HEAD TO HEAD<\/p>\n
Regular season<\/p>\n
Dec. 9 vs. TBL: 6-1 TBL<\/p>\n
Dec. 28 @ TBL: 5-4 TBL (SO)<\/p>\n
Mar. 31 @ TBL: 4-1 MTL<\/p>\n
Apr. 9 vs. TBL: 2-1 MTL<\/p>\n
Playoffs<\/p>\n
Game 1 | Apr. 19 @ TBL: 4-3 MTL (OT)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Game 2 | Apr. 21 @ TBL: 3-2 TBL (OT)<\/p>\n
Game 3 | Apr. 24 vs. TBL: 3-2 MTL (OT)<\/p>\n
Game 4 | Apr. 26 vs. TBL: 3-2 TBL<\/p>\n
Game 5 | Apr. 28 @ TBL: 3-2 MTL<\/p>\n
Game 6 | May 1 vs. TBL: 1-0 TBL (OT)<\/p>\n
PLAYERS TO WATCH FOR<\/p>\n
Jakub Dobes and Andrei Vasilevskiy have gone toe-to-toe all series, and Game 7 should be no different. Dobes, the rookie, starred with 38 saves in Game 5, while Vasilevskiy, a future Hall-of-Famer, stole Game 6 for Tampa.<\/p>\n
Who gets the last laugh in Game 7? We\u2019ll find out soon enough.<\/p>\n
BY THE NUMBERS: HABS-BOLTS<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how the Canadiens and Lightning match up by the numbers:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KEYS TO THE GAME Why not us? Winning a Game 7 starts with belief\u2014and the Canadiens should have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-257417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=257417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/257417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=257417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=257417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=257417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}