One advantage that Tampa Bay has in this situation is that it is used to not having Hedman in the lineup this season. The future Hall of Famer missed 49 regular-season games because of injuries and the aforementioned personal reasons.
The extended absences of Hedman, Ryan McDonagh (34 missed games) and Erik Cernak (21 missed games) led to the emergence of the J.J. Moser-Darren Raddysh pair, which arguably was the NHL’s highest-performing combo during the regular season. Moser and Raddysh’s expected-goal rate of 61.6 per cent was the best out of 46 pairs that played at least 500 minutes at five-on-five. (The Lightning outscored opponents 47-30 during those minutes.)
That territorial dominance has carried over into the playoffs. Tampa Bay has generated 61.9 per cent of the expected goals in the 30:45 that Moser and Raddysh have shared the ice against Montreal. On Tuesday, Moser became the first player in Lightning history to score an overtime winner as his first career playoff goal.
The Canadiens did not have any runway to adjust to life without Dobson, who suffered his injury during the 80th game of the season. It put the Canadiens in a bind because they have only one other right-handed defender on the roster. That player, Alexandre Carrier, has replaced Dobson on Montreal’s shutdown pair alongside Mike Matheson to start the series against the Lightning. (Matheson and Dobson played 942:30 at five-on-five during the regular season, 10th most among defence pairs.)
In Game 1, Carrier won a board battle in the offensive zone that led directly to forward Josh Anderson’s goal. Carrier averaged 5.64 puck-battle wins per 60 minutes during the regular season, which ranked 19th out of 215 defencemen who played at least 500 minutes.
“It’s everybody’s job to give a little more,” Carrier told reporters. “But I know I’m the only right-handed defenceman while Dobson’s out.”
But Carrier and Matheson have had their hands full with the Lightning’s top forwards. They have been out-attempted 29-12 at five-on-five, though scoring chances are just 7-3 in Tampa Bay’s favour. Carrier and Matheson’s time has been split fairly evenly between Nikita Kucherov’s line with Brayden Point and Gage Goncalves (5:47) and the second line of Brandon Hagel, Anthony Cirelli and Jake Guentzel (4:45).
Unsurprisingly, Canadiens defenceman Lane Hutson has taken on more minutes in Dobson’s absence, averaging 30:30 of ice time through two overtime games. Hutson’s 6:59 of total puck-possession time leads all players in the series by a healthy margin. (Matheson is second at 4:22, followed by Raddysh at 4:16.)
“It’s important that, collectively, all our defencemen step up, and I think they have,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis told reporters Wednesday. “You just notice (Hutson) more because he’s on the ice more often.”
Hutson and partner Kaiden Guhle, however, have been outscored 2-0 by the Lightning and have a 41.3 xGF% in more than 30 minutes of ice time at five-on-five. Montreal’s best pair has been Jayden Struble and Arber Xhekaj, who have dominated their sheltered minutes against Tampa Bay’s third and fourth lines. The Canadiens have recorded 24 shot attempts and given up only nine at five-on-five with Struble and Xhekaj on the ice.
Overall, St. Louis has been impressed by his young club’s resolve.
“We battled hard (in Game 2),” St. Louis told reporters Wednesday. “We competed. We controlled a lot of the game (Tuesday), just lost it. But it’s there. I’m very confident in how we want to play and the thoughts behind our intentions and the courage we’re showing.”