There are heists, and then there is whatever the Canadiens just pulled off in Tampa. Nine shots on goal in an elimination game on the road against the Lightning. Nine. That should not be a winning number in beer league, let alone a Game 7. And yet here we are, with Montreal advancing and the Bolts staring at a long summer.
The early script made the ending even more insane. This was supposed to be a track meet — pucks were flying in from everywhere in the first period and the over was already cooked before the Zamboni got its first turn. Then it just... stopped. Montreal stopped shooting, Dobes stopped everything, and a goalie duel broke out in a game that opened like an All-Star Skills Competition.
The bigger picture here is Jon Cooper, who is having the kind of stretch that follows a coach around for years. Lost the gold medal game with Canada at the 4 Nations, now bounced in Game 7 at home by a Habs team that barely touched the puck in the offensive zone. When your group is putting 71 shots on net across two of the biggest losses of your career and you still come out on the wrong side, the questions get loud fast.
And Montreal? Montreal is going to lose its mind. This is a young team that wasn't supposed to be here yet, knocking off the team that has owned the Eastern Conference for half a decade with a goalie performance for the ages and a roster full of guys nobody picked on the preseason over/under. The bar tabs in Quebec are going to be a war crime tonight, and they still have another series coming.
If you weren't a hockey guy yesterday, a series like this is exactly the kind of thing that flips you. Game 7 on the road, a backup-feeling goalie standing on his head, the favorite outshooting you 4-to-1 and still losing. That's the sport at its dumbest and best, and it just made a lot of new converts.