Poor Len Canayen has some advice for Habs' Luke Richardson

Ed. here. Game 2 of the National Hockey League (G. Betchman, Prop.) Stanley Cup finals, between Canada's team, the Montréal Canadiens, and the defending champion Tampa Bay Lightning, is scheduled for 8 PM ET tonight.TB leads the series 1 game to 0 following a sub-par performance by the Habs on Monday night. Watch it on TVA Sports, SportsNet or NBC Sports. 

We hand over, now. to our National Sport Editor, Poor Len Canayen, who is taking time from his baking to give some advice to the Habs coaching staff.

Although three giveaways sealed the Habs' fate on Monday, the real problem was lack of offence. TB's goalie faced fewer than 20 shots, with only a handful being quality chances. My advice, therefore, is mostly related to the defence. [??? Walt.] 

Interim interim head coach Luke Richardson has been playing, as his third defence pairing, last-minute pickups Jim Merrill and Eric Gustafsson. The latter was billed as a "power play specialist" but against a team that doesn't take many penalties, so what! Both Merrill and Gustafsson are slow of foot, so are reluctant to join a rush for fear of getting caught pinching. 

So, Monsieur Luc, what you do is sit those two and put in, as your third D pair, Brett Kulak and Alexandre Romanov. The latter is just a kid, and makes the odd rookie mistake, but he's fast, aggressive, and not afraid to shoot. The chippy Kulak takes more than his share of penalties, but remember that our guys lead the league in short-handed goals!

Up front, if Joel Armia is not yet ready to take his place on the fourth line, consider putting Tomas Tatar in there. He's been in the château du chien since a  listless performance in the last part of the regular season, but he should be tired of the view from the stands, and might just turn out to be an unlikely hero.

Don't listen to dose other guys, Luke! Listen to me! Have I ever steered you wrong? Lifetime pct .988.

PS - The bagels are from St-Viateur Bagels in Montréal. Get `em while they're hot! Or, if you're not up for the drive, you can get `em delivered, to addresses on either side of the World's Longest Undefended Border (TM).

The Canadiens are still there!

Here's our National Sports Editor, Poor Len Canayen, breathing a sigh of relief. He'll tell you why.

Tank youse, Hed. Let us recap. Going into last night's fifth game of their NHL quarter-final playoff series, Canada's National Team, the Montréal Canadiens, trailed the Flyers of Philthydelphia 3 games to 1. How could this could be, when the World's Best Goaltender (TM), Carey Price, had a GAA of 1.25 and a saves pct of .957 in the first four games? I will explain.

Although Price allowed only 5 goals in the first four games, the team in front of him scored only 6. So why wasn't that enough to win, 6-5? Because the Habs scored 5 of their goals in the Game 2 blowout, and 1 in a 2-1 loss in the first game. The scored NO (zero) goals in Games 3 and 4, losing 1-0 and 2-0. So there they were, not having scored in almost 130 minutes, facing elimination.

But, as the saying goes, la plume de ma tante est sur la table. When the going gets tough, the tough get going! And so they did. Starting fast and getting the first goal early has proved critical in this series, and Joel Armia hit the twine, with a short-handed goal (!) just before the 3-minute mark, letting the Flyers know that the Habs weren't going to give up without a fight.

Then, at the 2-minute mark of the 2nd period, came something I never expected to see -- a major penalty and game misconduct for boarding to the formerly mild-mannered, always-smiling Jesperi Kotkaniemi, a kid who can barely raise a playoff beard. Is it true that steroids make you cranky? In the summer of 2019 they told KK that he'd better put some pounds on his lanky frame, and he did. 20 pounds heavier now than he was at Christmas, he's starting to throw his new weight around, but this time too much so, and at the wrong time. During the 5-minute powerplay, Flyers' Voracek ended a scoring drought with two goals, and I must admit I thought that was going to be the end.

Except it waasn't. Les Glorieux came back hard, with Joel Armia leading the charge. He hit a crossbar shortly after the teams got back to even strength, said "I won't do that again", and put his next shot in, just over Philly goalie Carter Hart's shoulder, making it 2-up. Just over a minute later, Brenda Gallagher, on something like his 37th shot in this series, finally scored, making it 3-2 Habs at the end of the 2nd.

Could the Habs hang on to a one-goal lead? Errr, no. Unlike in the first four games, special units played a big part in last night's game. The Canadiens' penalty kill was not as effective as usual, and the Flyers' power play hit for their third goal of othe game at 10:37. BUT... it seemed like Montréal said, with one voice, "Damn it, we are NOT going to lose!" Nick Suzuki, who had a goal called back (offside) earlier in the period, scored what proved to the the game-winner just 22 seconds later.

The Habs put up an aggressive defence for the balance of the game, with centre Phillip Danault -- overworked in the absence of Kotkaniemi -- rewarded an empty-net goal at 19:42. Final score: Montréal 5 - Philadelphia 2. Philadelphia now leads the series 3 games to 2, with another potential elimination game scheduled for 7 ET/4 PM on Friday. Can the Habs win that one and one more, to advance to the next round? Bet against them at your peril!