Juraj Slafkovsky put the Canadiens on his back Sunday night in Tampa, scoring all three Montreal goals including the overtime winner to steal Game 1 by a final of 4-3.
Three power play goals. Seven shots on net. Game-winning goal in OT.
That is not a performance. That is a statement.
And yet, the conversation coming out of Amalie Arena did not center on a 22-year-old forward putting on one of the more dominant individual playoff performances in recent Canadiens history.
It centered on the whistles.
Lightning Insider reporter Erik Erlendsson captured the mood from the Tampa side precisely when he posted Sunday night: "Can't believe they are calling Cirelli for interference on what was a battle to get to the puck... Montreal to the power play again at 4:20."
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Jon Cooper deflects, and Tampa Bay's penalty woes bury the narrative
Anthony Cirelli finished with 2 penalty minutes and held scoreless in just over 10 minutes of ice time. Josh Anderson drew one of those whistles and logged 4 penalty minutes of his own, scoring Montreal's fourth goal on 1 shot in 14:47 of ice time.
Jon Cooper, for his part, kept the focus post-game on his own team's self-inflicted damage, noting the Lightning hurt themselves with too many penalties in the offensive zone.
That is not exactly a ringing defense of the officiating, but it is also not giving the Canadiens any credit.
Brayden Point was held scoreless. Nikita Kucherov picked up two power play assists but Montreal killed the game before Tampa could fully lean on those advantages.
Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 15 of 19 shots. On a night Slafkovsky put 7 shots on him alone, that number tells its own story.
Jakub Dobes was the other story in the crease. The 23-year-old stopped 20 of 23 shots and made the overtime stand in a building that was supposed to rattle him.
It did not.
Look at the regular season head-to-head and Montreal's confidence is understandable. The Canadiens won two of their last three regular season matchups against Tampa, including a 4-1 road win on March 31 and a 2-1 home win on April 9.
Montreal finished the regular season at 48-24-10 for 106 points. Tampa matched that points total at 50-26-6 but carried a better goal differential, 59 to 27. On paper, this was supposed to be a tough draw for Martin St-Louis and his group.
Nobody told Slafkovsky.
Game 2 is Tuesday night back in Tampa, and the Lightning have a serious problem on their hands. Their penalty kill was tested hard in Game 1, and blaming the officials only gets you so far when you keep taking undisciplined penalties in the offensive zone.
Tampa still has the roster. Still has the experience. But Montreal just took home ice, and the crowd noise that came with it, off the table in one road overtime win.
Whether the Lightning can clean up their discipline before Tuesday's puck drop is the only real question that matters now. Everything else is noise.
Was the Cirelli interference call the turning point that cost Tampa Bay Game 1?
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