“The series might be shorter than expected”: Jon Cooper hated the silly penalties

Charles-Alexis Brisebois
“The series might be shorter than expected”: Jon Cooper hated the silly penalties
Credit: YouTube

Yesterday, the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 1 of the first round.

Did the Habs play a perfect game? No. Their nine shots after 40 minutes of play (at roughly the halfway point of the game, the Habs had five shots on goal) are a good example of that.

But the team came back from behind and found a way to win.

Jon Cooper, on the other hand, wasn't exactly thrilled with how his team performed. Giving the Canadiens five power plays is, in his view, unacceptable.

In fact, what he really didn't appreciate was his team taking four penalties in the offensive zone. In his view, that's foolish because it opened the door for the Habs—and their red-hot power play.

Obviously, Jon Cooper is known for heaping praise on his opponents in the playoffs. But to hear him speak this way (on top of him saying the series could be shorter than expected if this continues) is still telling.

Even if it's undoubtedly calculated, it shows thatThe refereesthe Habs did what they had to do, in the end. And who's to thank for that?

1. Jakub Dobes was excellent—and you could tell he was confident. He opened the door for his opponents to mount a comeback (Tampa Bay scored two quick goals to take the lead midway through the game), but…

But it has to be said that things weren't going great in front of him.

We know the Habs need to improve at five-on-five (especially since the guys in Tampa will try to be more disciplined tomorrow), and it's thanks to Dobes that the team stayed in the game.

Now he just needs to figure out which net to head to in overtime…

2. How could we overlook Juraj Slafkovsky? The big winger scored three times on the power play, including the overtime winner.

When these five guys were on the ice, you could see that the experience from the 2025 playoffs had paid off and that the players had taken a big step forward over the past year. #Dynamic

3. Arber Xhekaj led his team with five body checks in 10:59 of ice time. Mike Matheson, Alexandre Texier, Alex Newhook (who shut down Brayden Point's line), and Josh Anderson each had four hits.

By the way, welcome back to playoff Anderson, huh? That guy is a beast in the playoffs…

4. The penalty kill wasn't perfect (the Lightning went 2-for-5), but the Habs won the special teams battle. And they did so even though, like the Lightning, the Canadiens also took some bad penalties.

Zachary Bolduc's penalty, right before Tampa Bay tied the game at 3-3, was unnecessary…

5. The team's defensemen stepped up in Noah Dobson's absence. Alexandre Carrier didn't look like a guy coming back from an injury—let's be honest: he was excellent.

And what about Lane Hutson? With all the power plays, he played 29 minutes yesterday. And he wasn't intimidated by Corey Perry, who wasn't a factor last night.

6. Seeing Charle-Édouard D'Astous get injured (due to a dangerous hit by Josh Anderson) helped the Canadiens. The opposing defense wasn't perfect last night.

Let's hope the Quebec native is feeling better this morning.


overtime

This afternoon at 1:30 p.m., the Canadiens will hold an optional practice. We suspect that yesterday's extras (and Noah Dobson, if he can skate) should take to the ice.

After all, I don't see why Martin St-Louis would change his lineup for tomorrow's game. That said, I'd bring in Joe Veleno for Kirby Dach.

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