MONTREAL — There’s more than one player who scored over 100 points this season but is stuck on less than you’d expect through three games of this series.
It’s not just Montreal Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki, who’s got three power-play points and none at even strength after putting up 101 points through 82 game regular-season games.
This other player we’re referring to produced 93 of his 130 points over a 45-game span. He’s a two-time Stanley Cup winner who’s all but guaranteed to finish as a finalist for this year’s Hart Trophy if he doesn’t win it outright. And though he’s produced a goal and three assists so far, he hasn’t found a way to impact this series the way his team would’ve hoped.
From down 2-1 to the Canadiens, the Tampa Bay Lightning need Nikita Kucherov to rise to the occasion right now. And they’re expecting that’s exactly what he’ll do in time for Sunday’s Game 4 (Sportsnet, Sportsnet+, 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT).
“Do I think we’ve still got more of the better of Kuch to come?” asked Lightning coach Jon Cooper on Saturday. “I really do.”
The Canadiens should believe that as well, making the need for Suzuki to find his most productive self that much more pressing.
While their depth came through in Game 3 while Suzuki and linemates Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky were held in check at five-on-five for a third consecutive game, the Canadiens should expect a win in Game 4 to hinge on their top guns unloading.
Even if head coach Martin St. Louis said Saturday they don’t need to do that for the Canadiens to win.
“Those guys, they’re always a big part of our success, whether they’re on the scoresheet offensively or not, because they rack up a lot of minutes against some really good players,” said St. Louis, and he was right about that.
But the coach, who was once a superstar player himself, also knows how the pressure can mount on players like Suzuki and Caufield when they aren’t scoring in the most critical games.
Cooper knows that pressure is at its apex for Kucherov right now.
“I think when you reach that level — like the best of the best of the best — you have in you an inner drive, something that’s so calculated, it’s so driven, there’s just habits that are built into him,” said Cooper. “There’s a flip side to that, and it can be demanding. And I think, at times, Kuch can get frustrated because he holds himself to a standard that is incredibly high, and he judges himself on what he can do and what he’s doing.”
What Kucherov isn’t doing is dominating this series.
But that could change in an instant.
It almost certainly has to for the Lightning to avoid returning to Tampa down 3-1.
“I look back in playoff series of past, and he’s such a huge part of our team with what he does,” said Cooper. “If you’re going to line guys up and say, ‘Who do you want on your team?’ I’m taking that one for sure.”
The Canadiens will ride with Suzuki, hoping he’ll unblock before Kucherov does.
Goals in the last two games — including a 90 m.p.h. slapshot that won the Canadiens Game 3 in overtime — not only gives Lane Hutson confidence in his shot, but also forces the Lightning to respect it more than they have so far.
They’ve given Hutson more than enough opportunities to shoot the puck, and he’s taken them, producing 10 on net and 20 attempts through the first three games.
The Lightning must know now that if they keep giving him as many, it’s going to cost them.
Even if Hutson doesn’t score, the damage he can do just by shooting — especially on the power play — goes beyond hitting the back of the net.
“I think it’s exhausting for any team defending when a shot comes and it’s recovered by the other team, and we get another shot and they’ve gotta do it again,” said Hutson. “So I think it kind of wears out any team that has to get back into their structure.”
That it momentarily gets them out of their structure also has major benefits.
The Lightning are giving up shots to Hutson because they’re trying to eliminate the cross-ice seams between Suzuki and Ivan Demidov, or the ones between Caufield on the goal line and Slafkovsky in the bumper.
But every time Hutson gets a shot through to the net, it has a chance of ricocheting to a place that would take the Lightning out of their structure and open those seams the Canadiens want to pass through. And that’s if it doesn’t go in or get gobbled up by goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy.
If the Lightning keep giving Hutson space to shoot, he’ll keep shooting.
“I still don’t think I’m like the craziest big threat, but maybe they’re a little more cautious when we have a net-front presence,” Hutson said. “If they don’t take away a shooting lane, I feel comfortable shooting it. Especially if we have a guy like Slaf in front of the net or some bodies there.”
• No changes expected to the Canadiens’ lineup.
• Cooper wouldn’t comment on potential changes to his lineup, but he did make changes after losing Game 1.
• Charle-Edouard D’Astous remains sidelined for Game 4 after taking a heavy hit from Josh Anderson that knocked him out of Games 2 and 3. Cooper said he’ll be designated day-to-day as of Monday.
• On what the Canadiens learned about locking down leads down the stretch of the regular season, St. Louis said: “I think it’s definitely game management. And you’ve gotta take care of the puck, and you’ve gotta still want it and still have it. You can’t just game manage just giving them the puck and we’ll defend hard. You be calculated with what you do with it, but you still need to keep playing. Managing the puck in the o-zone is huge. You try not to have hope plays in the o-zone. If you can spend time in there, they can’t score from there. And when you lose it in there, can we defend now, not just wait until we get into our zone? So I think a big part of it is just managing the puck when you have it and being alert when you don’t, and I think we’ve gotten better at that.”
• On the lost lead in Game 2, Hutson gave the Lightning credit for pushing but also talked about the Canadiens’ responsibility in the loss. “We had a couple of bad shifts that stacked up and they got a break and scored. After that, the OT, they didn’t give us a chance. We didn’t recover from it. I think the lesson is, you’ve gotta turn it as quick as you can, stack a good shift and stack as many good shifts as you can. You can’t have seven bad shifts in a row after that goal (in the third).”
• On Brayden Point, who has one goal and zero assists through three games, Cooper said: “He’s gotta get going, and he knows it. We’ve talked about it at length. He’s at best when he’s moving his feet and commanding the puck and skating with it. There was times the last game he was uncharacteristically giving it up at times a little early … I think the best of Brayden Point is yet to come, and I think we’ll see it (Sunday night).”
• Everything he said could apply to Caufield, too. He had 51 goals this season, much like Point once had a 51-goal season. He’s also needs to get going and knows it. He is also at his best when he’s moving his feet, commanding the puck and skating with it. And if Suzuki finds his best game, that’ll only help him deliver Sunday night.
• Another sleeper agent waiting for an awakening: Jake Guentzel. He’s got 41 goals in 77 career playoff games and is still waiting on his first of this series. Cooper’s take on him: “He is a weapon. If you go back in his career and look at some of the players he’s played with, and he’s just had massive success. He’s just a cerebral player. You just look up at the end of the year and he’s got 90-plus points. He’s played the power play and the penalty kill and he’s played with the best players, he’s checked, he’s done everything. And he’s one of those guys and you look and he’s probably not the fastest player on the ice, he doesn’t have the hardest shot, not the biggest guy out there, yet he is just a hockey player.”