Goaltending ‘big part’ of Canadiens-Lightning series in Eastern 1st Round

TAMPA -- The offensive talent on display in the Eastern Conference First Round between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Montreal Canadiens is off the charts.

Leading the Lightning is forward Nikita Kucherov, who finished second in the NHL with 130 points (44 goals, 86 assists) in 76 games this season. Tampa Bay also has dangerous scorers in Jake Guentzel (38 goals) and Brandon Hagel (36 goals).

The Canadiens tout Cole Caufield (51 goals) and Nick Suzuki, who, with 101 points (29 goals, 72 assists), was one of just eight players in the League to hit triple digits this season.

And though all eyes will be on these offensively gifted forwards for each side, the difference in this series, which starts with Game 1 at Benchmark International Arena on Sunday (5:45 p.m. ET; The Spot, HBO MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC) could come down to the goalies.

"Goaltending is a big part of any team,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said Friday. “And how many playoff MVPs have been goaltenders? What's the percentage?”

To Cooper’s point, in the 60 times the Conn Smythe Trophy has been handed to the MVP of the Stanley Cup Playoffs since 1965, it’s gone to a goalie 17 times (28 percent).

“That kind of tells you the importance of the position,” he said.

The most recent goalie to win the award, Andrei Vasilevskiy, will start for the Lightning. The 31-year-old has 120 playoff games on his resume, along with two Stanley Cup championships (2020, 2021), the Conn Smythe as postseason MVP in 2021, the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s best goalie in 2018-19, and perhaps another one coming his way after this season, when he went 39-15-4 with a 2.31 goals-against average, .912 save percentage and two shutouts in 58 games.

“‘Vasy’ has been with us for a long time, so we know what we have and how much he means to us,” Cooper said. “But part of his success, too, is how we play and when we're playing strong defensively, it just helps him out. So, it all goes together, but there's times when you break down and the timing of saves and when you make that big save, and Vasy has always had that because he'll make that save at a big time."

Opposite him, the Canadiens will have one of two rookies, with Jakub Dobes almost certainly getting the Game 1 start with teammate Jacob Fowler as the backup.

That seems to give Tampa Bay a distinct advantage in net, but Dobes said the task of facing Vasilevskiy no longer fazes him, especially after besting him and the Lightning twice, on March 31 and April 9, during Montreal’s playoff push. Dobes allowed just one goal in each game.

“The last couple of games we played against each other, I feel like I was like, lucky enough to win, so I feel like a lot of respect, he a great goaltender, but I don't think the fear is there as much as it was the first couple times we played them,” Dobes said. “Because he's one of the best goalies in the League and I don't have that much experience; I have some, but playing against a goalie you like that it's good to realize that you can beat him and you can have a good series against him.

“But good luck to him. I know he's going to be awesome for them, and I'll try to my best to help the team, and hopefully we'll advance.”

Those two wins were part of dominant stretch for Dobes, who went 10-4-0 with a 2.27 GAA and .924 save percentage from March 4 to the end of the regular season, to help the Canadiens clinch a playoff berth for a second straight season.

The 24-year-old finished 29-10-4 with a 2.78 GAA and .904 save percentage in 43 games (42 starts).

Fowler, 21, Montreal’s other rookie goalie, was 9-6-2 with a 2.43 GAA and .908 save percentage in 17 games.

As for the playoff experience being an advantage, Vasilevskiy said it can’t be something the Lightning use as crutch, pointing out that despite winning the Stanley Cup in back-to-back seasons and reaching the Cup Final in 2022, they have since been eliminated in the first round in three straight seasons.

"We'll have to work hard to win and not rely on our experience,” Vasilevskiy said. “Because that didn't work the last three years.”

This time of year is nothing new to Vasilevskiy, but Dobes has played three NHL playoff games, all last season when the Canadiens lost in the first round to the Washington Capitals in five.

But don’t expect Dobes to be overwhelmed by the moment. When asked Friday how he’s going to approach Game 1 of this series as opposed to a regular-season game, he said nothing will change.

“Today's Friday, tomorrow is Saturday. Sunday is the game,” Dobes said. “That's how I approach it. Just everything is the same, same pucks and players, but just right before a game, all the guys will be more pumped up.”

Suzuki, the Canadiens captain, said he has no doubt Dobes will be ready and that Vasilevskiy will present a huge challenge not just in Game 1, but the entire best-of-7 series.

“Vasilevsky’s been maybe the best goalie over the last five, six years,” Suzuki said. “He’s definitely knows how to win. He’s going to maybe be a Vezina winner, but I think we have confidence in our goalies.

“I think they showed down the stretch they can win big games, make big saves. We have all the confidence in them.”

The Lightning feel the same way about Vasilevskiy.

"He's competitive,” forward Corey Perry said. “He hates being scored on; he hates when it happens in practice. He just makes everybody better around him. He's got that fire. He's a big goalie and he's quick. He's one of the best players."

NHL.com independent correspondents Sean Farrell and Corey Long contributed to this report