Tampa Bay Battles for Game Six Survival in Montreal

Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh repeated the word “trust” several times when meeting with the media on Thursday. The veteran said his team, which trails Montreal 3-2 in a best-of-seven opening round National Hockey League playoff series, needed to “trust in our process,” “trust in the gameplan,” and “trust our coaches.”

Game Six is tonight at the Bell Centre (7 p.m.) in Montreal, and the Lightning fans can’t be blamed if they have lost the ability to “trust” this team, given its most recent history.

“It’s up to us as players to go and execute the game plan,” McDonagh continued.

To be fair to McDonagh and his teammates, this series is bewildering as to the degree of how close it has been played. 

Three of the five games haven’t been settled in regulation. 

Montreal has outscored the Lightning 14-13 over the five games. 

And the Canadiens have accrued just four more (81-77) penalty minutes over 300-plus minutes of very physical action. 

Having said that, Tampa Bay had a “great opportunity,” in McDonagh’s words, to put the Canadiens down on Wednesday in Game Five at Benchmark International Arena in Tampa, after winning Game Four in Montreal, and the Lightning failed to meet the energy level of the visitors. 

“No one is happy with that result,” McDonagh said of the loss. “We had a great opportunity at home to take the lead in this series, and it slipped away from us.”

The 3-2 loss in regulation didn’t so much “slip away” as Montreal continually grabbed hold of the game’s momentum and refused to let go. 

Montreal outskated, outexecuted, and outbattled the Lightning throughout the night, most notably in the opening period, as it grabbed a 1-0 lead just three minutes into the game.

“You don’t want to start chasing the game,” McDonagh said of an early deficit. “You expect to have a good start.”

Do you? 

Tampa Bay hasn’t taken a lead into the second period in its past 20 games. 

“Is it 20?” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper asked when broached with the topic on Thursday by the media. “As in 2-0?”

It is, indeed, 20. Which is why the Lightning fans feel a bit queasy about somehow containing the Montreal offense, which will be fueled tonight by a maniacal Bell Centre crowd that Lightning forward Brandon Hagel called “insane” and “cool to play in front of,” earlier in the series. 

If Tampa Bay allows the hosts to jump on it early, it very well could be “Katie, préparez-vous au pire.”

“I would love to change that (slow start statistic),” Cooper said. “But what I would love to change is walking in after the third period with the lead.”

Tonight is of the foremost concern to the Lightning Nation. However, so is the bigger picture staring Cooper, McDonagh, and everyone else who follows this team. The ignominious fact is that the Lightning are one loss away from enduring a first-round playoff defeat for the fourth consecutive season. 

The equity that this franchise has spent the better part of two decades building with its fan base is in short supply at this point, given the lack of postseason success – of late.

“We’ve been a hungry group all year,” McDonagh said. “It’s been our message since Day One in training camp. Setting ourselves up for a long playoff run.

“It’s up to the guys in the (locker) room to dig deep here, and understand the situation we have put ourselves in.”

It will also be “up to the guys in the (locker) room” to restore some level of “trust” with the Lightning fan base, which can’t be blamed at all for its anxiety level as the puck-drop nears.