ARTURRI LEHKONEN SEND MONTREAL TO THE #STANLEYCUP FINAL! 🚨 #ItsOn pic.twitter.com/WxIDBQ3toC
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) June 25, 2021
The Montréal Canadiens are in the Stanley Cup final for the first time since 1993. The Canadiens will play either Tampa Bay or the New York Islanders. That Game 7 is tonight.
Artturi Lehkonen had the overtime winner in Game 6 to give Montréal the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl, the trophy of the "western" conference. Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver are the other Canadian teams to have won the trophy.
Phillip Danault got the primary assist on the OT winner, his first point of the series. Danault does so much on the ice that scoring isn't as big of a deal for him. He does bring pizza to the postgame news conference.
Cole Caufield had 4 goals in the series with Las Vegas, including one in Game 6. Shea Weber got his first playoff goal in 2021 on a power play in Game 6.
Game 5 saw Nick Suzuki get his first 3-point playoff game, Eric Staal adding his 2nd playoff, Caufield added a goal, and Jesperi Kotkaniemi scored a rebound goal off a Josh Anderson attempt.
Carey Price has been incredible in goal with a .934 save percentage, especially on the power play. The Habs gave up 3 power play goals to Toronto back in the first round. The Canadiens added to their playoff record with 13 games without allowing a power-play goal.
The Montréal Canadiens are the first Canadian team to get this far since the 2011 Vancouver Canucks. The Canadiens were the last Canadian NHL team to win the Stanley Cup. The team is by far the leader in the NHL with 24 Stanley Cups.
The last time the Montréal Canadiens were in the Stanley Cup final, the MLB Expos existed, the CFL Alouettes did not, and the Habs played at the Forum. This marks the first Stanley Cup final for Youppi! as the Habs mascot and former Expos mascot.
This was the first time Les Canadiens ever played on Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, the big provincial summer holiday. The team is now 1-0 on June 24.
The Canadiens are 11-0 when scoring 2 or more goals. The other win was Game 2 with Winnipeg by a 1-0 score.
Game 1 of the Stanley Cup final will be on Monday.
2021 Stanley Cup notebook: Montreal, Las Vegas tied 2-2
The inside capacity at the Bell Centre is limited to 3,500. The outside capacity is much larger. The Canadiens fans outside the Bell Centre have been a beautiful sight. Merci beaucoup for all that love for Les Habitants.
We should give an award to the best Canadian NHL team each season
NBC picked a lousy time to not air the anthem. A huge holiday in Quebec and a loud crowd for Game 6. They aired all the anthems from Las Vegas.
Thought she’d be a Habs fan! pic.twitter.com/otq4u7N2fl
— Chris Cuthbert (@CCpxpSN) June 23, 2021
Celine Dion rarely comes up on the blog. Dion denied posing for the Las Vegas photo. We believe her.
Cette passe de Perry mérite aussi une reprise. 👀
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) June 23, 2021
This pass from Perry deserves another look too. pic.twitter.com/loCd6AdvZq
Max Pacioretty and Mark Stone were the big names for Las Vegas who were stars on Canadian teams. Pacioretty was a long-time Canadien and Stone excelled in Ottawa.
Pacioretty finished the series with 2 assists and a goal, the same totals as Nick Suzuki had just in Game 5. Stone had 0 points.
The Ottawa Senators traded Stone and forward Tobias Lindberg in February 2019 for forward Oscar Lindberg, defenseman prospect Erik Brannstrom, and a 2nd-round pick in the 2020 NHL Draft (Egor Sokolov LW from Russia).
2021 Stanley Cup notebook: Montreal set to play Las Vegas in Stanley Cup semifinals
2021 Stanley Cup notebook: Montreal sweeps Winnipeg to head to Stanley Cup semifinals
The CBC audience matters a lot to the overall NHL ratings. The Game 5 numbers, only on Sportsnet, were 61% of the Game 4 numbers. CBC carried the Indspire Awards instead of Game 5.
Game 1: 2,300,000
Game 2: 2,499,000
Game 3: 2,875,000
Game 4: 3,029,000
Game 5: 1,848,000 (Sportsnet only)
Game 6: 3,687,000
TVA Sports numbers
Game 1: 990,000
Game 2: 1,060,000
Game 3: 1,372,000
Game 4: 1,292,000
Game 5: 1,348,000
Game 6: 1,608,000
Those Game 6 numbers were rather impressive, English and French.
2021 Stanley Cup playoffs scoreboard
John Bartlett and Garry Galley will call Game 7 of the Tampa Bay-NY Islanders series for CBC and Rogers Sportsnet. Game 7 will be their last game of the playoff season. Chris Cuthbert, Craig Simpson, and Kyle Buskauskas will call the Stanley Cup final; the first Stanley Cup series for Cuthbert and will involve a Canadian-based team.
Kenny Albert, Ed Olczyk, and Brian Boucher (aka village idiot) will call the Stanley Cup final on NBC and NBCSN. John Forslund, Joe Micheletti, and Pierre McGuire covered the Montréal series with Las Vegas. This will be the first NBC appearance for a Canadian NHL team since last August with 2 Habs games and a game with the Edmonton Oilers.
CanadianCrossing.com NHL coverage
We got a CBC rebroadcast of Game 6 on the NHL Network matinee schedule. The game, overtime included, was condensed into a 2-hour block so some content was lost. They also needed to cover the handshakes.
A Death in Cryptoland is a CBC podcast. There was a visual only reference to the Players Own Voice podcast before the 2nd period.
Montréal Game 6: Tokyo Olympics (1st); A Death in Cryptoland (2nd); CBC Gem; Tokyo Olympics CBC Kids (3rd)
Twitter captures: @Sportsnet; @CCpxpSN; @CanadiensMTL
photo credit: USA Network/NHL
Comments