CAREY! 😤#ItsOn | #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/sZ2qy6A5dQ
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) July 8, 2021
22 shots in a crucial Game 5 is almost certainly not enough. A 1-0 loss is a tough way to go out but speaks to how competitive the 2021 Montréal Canadiens were.
The press harped on Montréal finishing 18th in the league and the .527 lowest regular season points % to reach the Stanley Cup final. Factor in that Carey Price missed a lot of the second half and the team had to deal with a COVID-19 outbreak. Those are facts, not excuses. The team is very different now than at the end of the regular season.
This team had a hell of a run. As crushing as this defeat seems to the Habs, to Canadian teams, there is pride in what this team accomplished. The 2020 version was the #24th team in a 24-team playoffs and still accomplished what the Toronto Maple Leafs can't do: win a playoff series. The 2021 version came within 3 wins of a Stanley Cup.
Dominique Ducharme and Alex Burrows replaced Claude Julien and Kirk Muller. Carey Price was stellar in the first 3 series. The penalty kill dominance was excellent. The youth clicked. The veterans chipped in as needed. They got as far as they did as a team.
Hoping captain Shea Weber gets another crack at winning the Stanley Cup with the Habs.
The Montréal Canadiens still have 24 Stanley Cup championships, by far the most in the NHL.
Every Canadian NHL team has been to a Stanley Cup final in the 21st century except for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Winnipeg Jets.
2021 Stanley Cup notebook: Montreal Canadiens survive to reach Game 5
2021 Stanley Cup notebook: Montreal to play for the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1993
We have posted clips of the Canadiens from TVA Sports through Twitter feeds. A reminder that French is the language of Quebec. Montréal is a bilingual city in many ways: too bilingual for some French language advocates. The @CanadiensMTL feed is bilingual so there are translations for the words.
Here are the CBC/Rogers Sportsnet for the Stanley Cup finals.
TVA Sports numbers are not available. Omni carried Game 4 and Game 5 and its numbers are not included in these statistics.
We will update these numbers for Game 5 when we get them.
Game 1: 3,566,000
Game 2: 3,024,000
Game 3: 3,063,000
Game 4: 3,705,000
Game 5: 3,370,000
2021 Stanley Cup notebook: Montreal, Las Vegas tied 2-2
We should give an award to the best Canadian NHL team each season
2021 Stanley Cup notebook: Montreal set to play Las Vegas in Stanley Cup semifinals
The NBC run with the NHL ended with the same crew for Game 5 as Game 1 and Game 4. Kenny Albert and Eddie Olczyk move on to TNT. Brian Boucher will work for ESPN. Pierre McGuire is a free agent.
2021 Stanley Cup notebook: Montreal sweeps Winnipeg to head to Stanley Cup semifinals
2021 Stanley Cup playoffs scoreboard
CanadianCrossing.com NHL coverage
Chris Cuthbert left TSN to go to Rogers Sportsnet so he could call a Stanley Cup final. Cuthbert got a chance to do this in 2021 and with a Canadian team in the mix. The fact that Cuthbert also called the series on CBC is meaningful given his history with the public broadcaster.
Cuthbert and Craig Simpson proved a quality duo throughout the entire 2021 playoff run. Glad the U.S. audience got to see them through the rebroadcasts.
Here is the full list of CBC promos that aired on the NHL Network rebroadcasts.
Montréal Game 1: The National (1st); Death in Cryptoland; CBC Gem; Tokyo Olympics (2nd); CBC News app (3rd)
Montréal Game 2: Players Own Voice; CBC News app (2nd); The National (3rd)
Montréal Game 3: Death in Cryptoland (1st); The Block; Tokyo Olympics (3rd)
Montréal Game 4: The National (1st); Canada Tonight with Ginella Massa (2nd); CBC Gem; CBC News app (3rd)
Montréal Game 5: The Block (1st); CBC Sports App (2nd); Tokyo Olympics (3rd)
Twitter capture: @sportsnet
photo credit: @canadiensMTL
*Kirk Muller
Posted by: Kyle | July 08, 2021 at 07:11 AM
brain dead on my part. Of course, Kirk Muller. Thanks for noticing.
Posted by: Chad | July 08, 2021 at 10:31 AM