Stanley Cup contenders do not usually lose this many games - Tampa Bay Times

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TAMPA — Just because the Canadiens lost more games than they won doesn’t mean they had a crappy season.

But it was crappy by Stanley Cup final standards.

With 24 wins (and 11 overtime losses) in 56 games in the regular season, the Canadiens had a points percentage of .527, which placed them 18th among the NHL’s 31 teams.

It’s the lowest points percentage by a Stanley Cup finalist since Vancouver in 1994 and, should they beat the Lightning, their 24-21-11 record would be the worst by an NHL champion since Toronto in 1949.

So should Lightning fans be frisky going into Game 1 Monday night?

Not if they’ve been paying attention to the past month.

Montreal may have stumbled to the finish line with 15 losses in its final 23 games, but it found the right formula once the postseason began. Carey Price is one of the best goaltenders in the world, and the Canadiens have wisely chosen to play a tight-checking, low-scoring style.

Montreal is 8-1 in games decided by one goal this postseason.

“We believe that we aren’t the underdogs. We’re very confident in ourselves and what we’ve accomplished,” said assistant coach Luke Richardson, who took over the team the past week when coach Dominique Ducharme tested positive for COVID-19. “But in the same respect, it’s fine. We’ve kind of tuned out the outside (world) and let people say what they want to say.”

What people were saying in the first two rounds is that Montreal benefitted from playing in a weaker division. The Canadiens fell behind Toronto 3-1 in the opening series but came back to win three consecutive games, including a pair of overtime victories. Then Montreal swept a rather pedestrian Winnipeg team to become the sole survivor of Canada’s division in the NHL’s temporary reconfiguration.

The semifinal win against Vegas was something different. The Golden Knights had tied Colorado for the President’s Trophy in 2021 with 82 points and was playing in its third conference final in the past four seasons.

Montreal may be the weakest offensive team the Lightning have faced this postseason, but there is no doubt about their defensive abilities. With a goals-against average of 2.18 in the playoffs, the Canadiens are right behind Tampa Bay (2.06) in terms of shutting down opponents.

“We don’t even have to say it to the players, we hear them talking about it,” Richardson said. “We don’t use it as a motivation to prove people wrong. ... You want to show people that you belong, more than that they’re wrong.”

John Romano can be reached at jromano@tampabay.com. Follow @romano_tbtimes.

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