2021 Stanley Cup Final: 3 Keys to Game 2 as Habs look to even up series

1. Bombard Vasilevskiy with pucks and traffic

As good as Andrei Vasilevskiy was in Game 1, making 18 saves from 19 shots faced, it wasn’t his toughest night and he was hardly overworked given that the Montreal Canadiens went large stretches without actually getting the puck on net.

They went over 10 minutes of the third period without recording a single shot on goal, ending that period with just five, while they didn’t do a good enough job of generating traffic in front of the net and getting to the dirty areas.

The one time they actually did led to good things as defenseman Ben Chiarot scored his first goal of the postseason with a shot that went in off two Tampa Bay defensemen, but that was the only time the Habs really got bodies to the net.

It was something the Bolts excelled at on Monday, leading to them taking the lead in this series, and Montreal will need to make Vasilevskiy’s job a lot harder tonight if they are to head back to Canada on Friday with a split.

You can’t give an elite goalie like Vasilevskiy an easy ride, so the Habs have to get back to what has made them so successful this postseason, and that includes controlling the puck, getting bodies to the net, setting screens and winning the battle in the dirty areas.

If they can do just that and score a couple of greasy goals, while doing a better job of protecting Carey Price in their own zone, then Game 2 of the 2021 NHL Stanley Cup Final will be theirs for the taking.