2021 Stanley Cup Final: 4 Takeaways from an absolute classic Game 4

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Josh Anderson #17 of the Montreal Canadiens. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images) /

Game 4 of the 2021 Stanley Cup Final was an absolute classic and we had some takeaways.

We will get more Playoff hockey thanks to the Montreal Canadiens who beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2 in Overtime in Game 4 of the 2021 Stanley Cup Final on Monday, and Game 5 is set for Wednesday in Tampa.

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It was a doozy of a postseason showdown at Bell Centre in Montreal last night as the Habs showed plenty of fight to stay alive in this series, while the Lightning will now have to wait another game at least in order to get their hands on Lord Stanley.

Canadiens forward Josh Anderson, who was the clear MVP of Game 4, gave his team their first lead of this series at 15:39 in the first period with the Bolts never having trailed in the Stanley Cup Final up until that point, although Barclay Goodrow made it a tied game late in the second.

Alexander Romanov, making his Stanley Cup Final debut and appearing in just his third postseason game of his young career, scored his first career Playoffs goal with a shot from the point at 8:48 in the third to put the Habs back on top, but two-time Stanley Cup Champion Pat Maroon came up with another big goal at 13:48 to send the game to OT.

As they have done throughout this postseason, Montreal overcame more adversity after killing off a long four minute power play that stretched into OT after Shea Weber drew blood with a high stick on Ondrej Palat, and that led to a thrilling finale.

At 3:57 in Overtime, Anderson raced into the offensive zone with the puck and, after the initial play was broken up, the forward dived to locate the puck before somehow getting it past Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy for the game-winner to keep the season alive for the Habs.

It was just typical Playoff hockey excitement and we had some takeaways from the game we wanted to share…

4 Main Takeaways from Game 4 of the 2021 Stanley Cup Final as Montreal stays alive

Brayden Point #21 of the Tampa Bay Lightning skates against the Montreal Canadiens. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

4. Montreal’s historic PK

We aren’t talking enough about the Montreal Canadiens and their red hot penalty kill. It has been unbeatable for the duration of the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs, and it has somehow slowed down one of the most potent power plays in the entire National Hockey League.

Tampa Bay was operating at a 37.7 percent clip on the man advantage heading into Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, going 20-for-53 with Nikita Kucherov scoring 17 points on the PP.

However, the Bolts are now converting at a 33.9 percent clip having stumbled across a penalty kill unit that is proving almost impossible to beat and will go down in Playoffs history as one of the best.

And that isn’t even an overstatement. It has been that good.

The Canadiens killed off 30 straight penalties heading into this series and, while they have been been beat a couple of times, they’ve been pretty much perfect and they went 5-for-5 in Game 4 to improve to an incredible and unthinkable 91.4 percent.

That isn’t all, however. With time running out in regulation, Canadiens Captain Shea Weber was assessed a double-minor after high-sticking Tampa forward Ondrej Palat and drawing blood, leading to a four minute power play for the Lightning.

Montreal forced the game to Overtime, though, and they killed off the long man advantage with excellent work in the defensive zone and around the net, leading to Josh Anderson scoring the OT winner to force a Game 5.

Every single Head Coach in the NHL should be studying the Canadiens’ penalty kill and getting ready to show clips to their teams in preseason because Montreal is rewriting the blueprint for how you kill power plays in the postseason.

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