2021 Stanley Cup Final: Where were these Montreal Canadiens for the first 3 games?

It was better late than never for the Montreal Canadiens in Game 4 of the 2021 Stanley Cup Final.

Wow. Game 4 was really something as the Montreal Canadiens finally delivered a gutsy performance in the 2021 Stanley Cup Final to force a Game 5 against the Tampa Bay Lightning and keep their season alive.

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With the Bolts needing just one more win to seal their second straight championship and become the first team since the Detroit Red Wings in 1998 to sweep a Stanley Cup Final, the Habs showed an abundance of character, grit and fight to extend this series.

It was without doubt the Canadiens’ best display of the Stanley Cup Final so far, one that was a long time coming and also one that made you wonder why it didn’t make an appearance a lot earlier in this series.

While they outshot the Lightning in Game 2 and generally played well, the Habs had only shown flashes of the impressive and gritty brand of hockey that got them to this point, which was too often cancelled out by below-average goaltending and a boatload of turnovers.

We finally saw the real version of the Montreal Canadiens in Game 4

However, with all the cards on the table and their fate abundantly clear, Montreal displayed their resilience and ability to overcome adversity on more than occasion in Game 4 on Monday, while sending out a message that it is never wise to write this team off.

With the 3,500 fans allowed into Bell Centre making enough noise for 35,000, the Canadiens did what they hadn’t all series and that was to score the first goal of the game thanks to Josh Anderson‘s one-timer, ending Tampa Bay’s long streak of never trailing in the Stanley Cup Final.

Carey Price, who had allowed 13 goals on 79 shots for an .835 Save Percentage in the first three games, finally had a monster game and he was unbeatable for large stretches, ending the night with 32 saves on 34 shots.

Of course, the Lightning are an elite team and they were playing for the right to be crowned Stanley Cup Champions, so it was to be expected that they were not going to go away quietly with Barclay Goodrow making it a tied game in the second before Pat Maroon did the same in the third after Habs defenseman Alexander Romanov scored his first career goal in the Playoffs.

And it appeared likely that Montreal’s season was officially coming to a sudden end after Montreal Captain Shea Weber caught Ondrej Palat with a high stick and caught blood with 61 seconds remaining in regulation, leading to a four-minute power play.

All of the experts inside the NBC Studio predicted that the Lightning would end things quickly in OT given how deadly they are on the man advantage but, instead, the Canadiens did what they’ve done all postseason long and that was shine in the face of adversity.

Boasting the best penalty kill in the entire NHL in the Playoffs, the Habs did an excellent job of killing off that long power play after killing off all four of Tampa Bay’s power plays in regulation of Game 4.

And, with the Bell Centre rocking, the Habs gave their long-suffering fans something to really cheer for as Anderson pulled off the ultimate hustle play to locate the puck again before knocking it past Andrei Vasilevskiy for the Overtime winner less than four minutes in.

Canadiens fans both inside and outside the building celebrated in style and they now have at least one more game to look forward to this season, with Game 5 scheduled for Wednesday night in Tampa.

In truth, this was probably just a small victory for Montreal given that the Lightning have been here before having lost Game 5 to the Dallas Stars in last year’s Stanley Cup Final before clinching the series in Game 6 and, with Amalie Arena set to be a packed house on Wednesday, the Bolts will have plenty of motivation to get the job done so they can lift Lord Stanley on home ice in front of their fans.

However, Game 4 of the 2021 Stanley Cup Final will go down as an absolute classic thanks to the sheer willpower of the Montreal Canadiens who refused to give up and who have become masters of dealing with adversity this year having seen a Head Coach fired midway through the regular season, their Interim Coach missed two weeks of the Playoffs because of COVID, a crazy finish to the season where they played 25 games in just 43 days. Oh, and not to mention that they had the lowest winning percentage of any team in the Playoffs.

But this team boast the toughest of underbellies and they won’t go away quietly, although it is just a shame that it took this long for everyone to see this version of the Canadiens in the Stanley Cup Final.