Stanley Cup Final: 4 Big Takeaways from Game 1 as the Lightning crush the Canadiens

3. There is a way to beat Carey Price

All of the talk heading into the 2021 NHL Stanley Cup Final revolved around Carey Price and his heroics so far this postseason, with the Montreal Canadiens goalie putting a substandard regular season behind him to really rise to the occasion when it matters the most.

He entered Game 1 boasting a 12-5-0 record with a stellar .934 Save Percentage and a 2.02 Goals Against Average, with his best work arguably coming in the Semifinal against the Vegas Golden Knights where he completely stifled and shutdown one of the most talented teams in the entire league.

However, while the Knights were reluctant to get to the dirty areas in that series, Game 1 proved that the Lightning are, and they did a fantastic job of setting up screens and crowding the crease from pretty much the first drop of the puck.

Both of Tampa’s first two goals came on deflections as they took Price’s eyes away and made his job increasingly difficult, while the Bolts ensured that the Conn Smythe contender was kept uncomfortable all night as they consistently drove to the net, crashed hard to the dirty areas and made sure there was plenty of traffic in front of the net at all times.

And that’s the secret to solving the puzzle that is Price.

If Tampa Bay can maintain that formula for the rest of this series, if they can continue to take away the eyes of Price and set up screens every time they enter the zone, then the Canadiens goalie can be breached as he was in Game 1 and that could be the key to repeating as Stanley Cup Champions.