2021 Stanley Cup Final: Montreal Canadiens don’t belong in same weight class as Tampa Bay Lightning

Things are not looking good for the Montreal Canadiens who are out of their depth right now.

It was an ugly Game 3 for the Montreal Canadiens who lost 6-3 to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday, with the defending champions now one win away from winning the Stanley Cup for the second consecutive year.

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Hopes were high that the Habs could make this series interesting having returned to Montreal for Game 3, especially after dominating the Bolts in Game 2, but instead they produced a mistake-laden performance and their season is now on the brink.

Very little has gone right for Montreal in the Stanley Cup Final so far, and the bottom line is that they just don’t belong out on the same ice as the Lightning, who are an absolute juggernaut in every single aspect.

We saw it in Game 1 when Tampa Bay made a real statement with a dominant 5-1 win at Amalie Arena, dismantling the Habs with alarming ease while Nikita Kucherov continued to grow his remarkable postseason legacy with a three-point night (2 G, 1 A).

Montreal Canadiens are nowhere near the level of the Tampa Bay Lightning

Then, in Game 2 when they were well below their best and were sluggish with the puck, the Bolts found a way to grind out a 3-1 win to take a 2-0 series lead, although Andrei Vasilevskiy‘s stellar 42-save performance did have something to do with it.

However, the one true hallmark of an elite team in any sport is their ability to pull out a win when they aren’t firing on all cylinders, and the Lightning have shown that trait time and time again over the course of the last two postseasons.

And we saw some of that again in Game 3 on Friday as, for the second game running, Montreal outshot their opponents, but Tampa Bay were patient in their approach and they went for the kill when the opportunity presented itself.

In doing so, they proved why they are now on the cusp of winning back-to-back championships, while also highlighting the sheer gulf between them and teams like the Canadiens, who just have no answer to what they are facing in the Stanley Cup Final.

Now, before we go on, let’s debunk one false narrative that is the Habs don’t deserve to be here – no, they absolutely do after overcoming a 3-1 series deficit to beat a talent-laden Toronto Maple Leafs team in the First Round, sweeping the Winnipeg Jets in the Second and then beating the loaded Vegas Golden Knights in six in the semifinals.

Montreal earned their place in the 2021 Stanley Cup Final.

However, they just aren’t at the same level as the Lightning who may well go down as the next great dynasty in the National Hockey League, particularly given that this core as it is currently constituted is still looking at a win-now window of a few years.

Yes, some will argue that the Lightning have an unfair advantage after they were able to work around the salary cap this season but, at the end of the day, it was the same thing the Chicago Blackhawks did with Patrick Kane a few years ago and the NHL haven’t changed their policy, so the Bolts technically aren’t breaking any rules.

Anyway, we digress but there is no doubt that Tampa Bay is a special, special team and they boast depth and talent up and down the lineup, and that has been evident both throughout the postseason and in the Stanley Cup Final so far.

They are getting key contributions from up and down the lineup, their star players are performing as such, their goaltending is elite and they are incredibly tough to play against, something we’ve not always been able to say about the Lightning in the Playoffs.

Given just how formidable they are, the Canadiens knew they would have to be at the peak of their powers in this series and play a near-perfect game, but they haven’t been anywhere near that through the first three games.

Despite dominating Game 2, the Habs made two costly mistakes that the Lightning took full advantage of to take a 2-0 series lead, and Game 3 was just full of turnovers in what was just an ugly, ugly game.

Defensemen Jan Rutta and Victor Hedman scored early as Montreal dug themselves an early hole, and it was one they were never able to get out of as costly turnovers and mistakes allowed both Kucherov and Tyler Johnson to score big goals.

Even as the Canadiens gave themselves some hope thanks to goals from Nick Suzuki and Corey Perry, they found a way to undo their good work with a stupid turnover in their own zone leading to Blake Coleman scoring an empty-netter to wrap the game up.

You can’t make those kind of bone-headed mistakes in the Playoffs and expect to win, especially not against a juggernaut like Tampa Bay, and it is clear that as good as the Canadiens have been this postseason and as bright as their future is, they just aren’t quite good enough to go toe-to-toe with the Lightning just yet.

Time will tell if the Montreal Canadiens can win at least one game and force the series back to Tampa with Game 4 slated for Monday but, whether they get swept or not, they aren’t in the same echelon as their opponent and the 2021 Stanley Cup Final is laying that painfully bare.