The Montréal Canadiens have one more hurdle to the team's first Stanley Cup win since 1993 — its division rival, the Tampa Bay Lightning. Tampa Bay edged out the New York Islanders in 7 games to reach the championship battle. Game 1 starts tonight.
The series will follow the M-W-F pattern with a potential Game 7 on a Sunday night. The series avoids Canada Day as well as the Fourth of July.
Montréal has faced Tampa Bay 3 times before in the playoffs, going 1-2. The Habs lost 4 straight in the 2004 conference semifinals, won 4 straight in the 2014 opening round, and lost 4-2 in the 2015 second round.
There is a peculiarity to the fact that the games in Florida will be at Amalie Arena, the home this winter for the NBA Toronto Raptors.
À lundi.
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) June 26, 2021
See you Monday.#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/Uk4ORUuqA7
Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin has been a fashion plate in his red suit. We feel comfortable predicting a lot more use of the suit in the next couple of weeks.
Luke Richardson remains the interim coach for the interim coach. Dominique Ducharme will reportedly be back for Game 3 for Montréal, provided there aren't more complications.
Ducharme has received both of his COVID-19 vaccine shots.
Joel Armia won't be traveling to Tampa since he is in COVID-19 protocol.
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The Canadiens chose not to touch the Clarence S. Campbell trophy while the Lightning chose to touch the Prince of Wales trophy.
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There was a bit of exuberance in downtown Montréal with the Game 6 celebration. The impression that Canadians are "too polite" to have this kind of a reaction is naive. Only 3,500 fans have been at the Bell Centre with thousands outside the arena. Add in COVID-19 and a 28-year wait and some fans may go too far.
We should give an award to the best Canadian NHL team each season
The quirk in the schedule has the Americans traveling to Montréal and staying there for the July 4 holiday. I was in Vancouver for the July 4 holiday in 2008, spending the evening at BC Place with the BC Lions. The team played the U.S. anthem, which was a nice touch. Given how much your humble narrator misses Montréal, I would gladly spend any country's independence day in that wonderful city.
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The Montréal Canadiens and Winnipeg Jets had to play back-to-back games twice in the 2021 NHL playoffs. The Toronto Maple Leafs and Edmonton Oilers had to play back-to-back games in the opening round. None of the American teams had to go through back-to-back games. The argument was that the NHL had to finish before the Tokyo Olympics. Even if this series goes 7 games, there is plenty of error margin.
Yes, the Canadian division fell behind the other divisions due to COVID-19. Just a reminder that Gary Bettman doesn't like Canada.
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We noted earlier in the playoffs when John Forslund couldn't grasp the name of the building where the Winnipeg Jets play. When the Seattle Kraken come to Winnipeg, someone will hopefully tell Forslund the new name of the building.
Bell MTS Place will become Canada Life Centre on Canada Day 2021. True North Sports and Entertainment signed a 10-year sponsorship agreement with the life insurance company.
Bell still has its name on the arena in Montréal (which Forslund didn't screw up that name) while Rogers has the naming rights for arenas in Edmonton and Vancouver and the baseball stadium in Toronto. Scotiabank, not a phone company, has naming rights for arenas in Calgary and Toronto.
2021 Stanley Cup playoffs scoreboard
CanadianCrossing.com NHL coverage
We already covered the primary Stanley Cup finals coverage. You can always read more about the efforts of Rogers Sportsnet as well as NBCUniversal. Peacock will stream Games 1-2 from NBCSN. Omni will carry Games 4-7 in Punjabi in Canada.
The NHL Network gave the pattern of CBC feeds for games in Montréal in the last series. Hoping to get Canadian feeds for matinee rebroadcasts for as many games as possible.
photo credit: NHL
Twitter capture: @CanadiensMTL
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