“One more”: Yeah, one last one before golf, Jon

Raphael Simard
“One more”: Yeah, one last one before golf, Jon
Credit: X

Did the Canadiens knock out the Tampa Bay Lightning?

This is the fourth time in four years that Jon Cooper's squad has been eliminated in the first round. Despite all its arrogance, it was knocked out by the second-youngest team in the NHL, which kept its cool throughout the series.

When I talk about arrogance, I'm thinking of Brandon Hagel, Nikita Kucherov (I'm coming back to his comments from 2021), and Jon Cooper. After his team's victory in Game 6, Cooper told Montreal fans, “One more.”

Yeah, one more before golf, my Jon. With that, I wish the coach, Hagel, and Kucherov, among others, some great rounds of golf. 

By the way, Kucherov doesn't step up in the big moments. We'll call him Agent 007: 0 goals, 0 assists in seven Game 7s. He was silenced in seven games against the Habs: six points in seven games. For a guy with 130 points in the regular season, that's not enough.

In any case, while the Habs advance to the second round and the Lightning are eliminated, the conclusion is clear: Montreal has successfully rebuilt, and questions will be asked in Tampa Bay.

Will Julien BriseBois keep a similar lineup for next season, or will he make major changes?

Even though Tampa Bay deserved to win the game (allowing only nine shots on goal), it's the Habs who will head to Buffalo to face the Sabres.

The series begins on Wednesday, and the Habs will fly directly to New York after the game. No stopover in Montreal, then. I imagine the guys want to celebrate a bit and prepare properly for an opponent that's nothing like the Lightning.

The Sabres and the Habs split the four games they played against each other this season.

Here is the second-round schedule, which was released in the last few hours.

Let's see if the first-round MVP, Jakub Dobes, will be spectacular again against the Sabres.

In the series against Tampa, he saved at least two games, including the decisive game. For a goalie who shows a lot of emotion and didn't hide the fact that he was stressed after the game, he looked very calm.


Overtime

– What a rollercoaster of emotions!

– The unexpected hero.

– No one is surprised.

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