Lightning-Canadiens Game 7: Key players, final score picks

It’s all comes down to at least one sport for the host Tampa Bay Lightning and Montreal Canadiens.

Three wins a bit, 4 of the six video games needing time beyond regulation to determine a winner.

Which group will transfer on to face the Buffalo Sabers within the subsequent spherical, and which one will spend the approaching months wishing it might have had simply one extra probability to take action?

Our panel of hockey reporters and analysts is right here to interrupt down the important thing gamers to look at in Sunday’s Game 7 (6 pm ET, TNT), in addition to make a prediction on the final score.

Who is the one key participant you may be watching in Game 7?

Ryan S. Clark, NHL reporter: Jakub Dobes. Much of the dialog across the Canadiens has been about how their younger core would deal with one other playoff run. An argument might be made that Dobes has been certainly one of, if not the most constant performer of this sequence in terms of how this membership will function sooner or later. He’s given the Canadiens an opportunity to win in each sport all through the sequence.

Doing the identical in Game 7 is just going to boost your profile in a metropolis during which being the No. 1 goalie already comes with fairly a little bit of consideration.

Emily Kaplan, NHL reporter: Nikita Kucherov. He would possibly win the Hart Trophy for league MVP this season, scoring a ridiculous 130 factors in 76 video games (44 objectives, 86 assists, which is 42 factors greater than his closest teammate) however his postseason hasn’t been as much as his identical good requirements — but.

In the Lightning’s worst group efficiency of the sequence, a Game 5 loss at house, Kucherov’s physique language was noticeably poor. This is one thing the Tampa Bay workers says the star winger had lower down on this season. They at all times make clear: Kucherov shouldn’t be complaining about teammates or coaches, he is extra annoyed with himself that the performs he expects to be there simply aren’t materializing. Kucherov can erase all of that narrative with a signature efficiency in Game 7.

Victoria Matiash, NHL analyst: Cole Caufield. Enough is sufficient. As efficient as Tampa Bay has been at stifling Montreal’s high line, Caufield stays effectively overdue after scoring extra objectives this season — 51, together with 40 at even power — than anybody not named Nathan MacKinnon. If Andrei Vasilevskiy hadn’t put forth his best efficiency of this sequence, the league’s second-best scorer stood a great probability of scoring off 4 high quality pictures in Game 6 (0.65 ixG, in line with Evolving Hockey).

If Caufield lastly manages so as to add to his present common whole of 1 power-play objective this sequence, when it issues most, the Habs will stand a considerably higher probability of transferring on to face the Sabres.

Arda Öcal, NHL broadcaster: Andrei Vasilevskiy. Big Cat is without doubt one of the most clutch goaltenders in NHL historical past. He has eight profession playoff shutouts and 7 of them had been both in a series-clinching or elimination sport.

He stood tall with a shutout in Game 6, making 30 saves, which is his second most quantity of saves in a playoff shutout. If Tampa Bay wins Game 7, it is on the again of certainly one of their most dependable members of their roster in over a decade.

Kristen Shilton, NHL reporter: Brayden Point. It’s wild that the most important affect Point has had on this sequence is spawning heated debate over an (alleged?) missed high-sticking name in Game 6 that (probably?) price the Lighting a four-minute energy play. Point has one objective towards the Canadiens heading into Game 7, and that is after he collected 50 factors in 63 regular-season video games. He has been a point-per-game producer within the playoffs earlier than, and greater than that, Point has been an offensive driver for Tampa Bay.

But to assume he is averaging practically 20 minutes of ice time, and it nonetheless feels (solely half-jokingly) like his face belongs on a lacking individuals’ report? That’s not the usual Point has set for himself over time (he as soon as scored 51 objectives in a season!), and if Point has been holding one thing again or ready for the highlight to burn brightest to completely shine, effectively, that is the time to step ahead. The Lightning wants extra from their star gamers and Point bears stress to be a difference-maker in Game 7.

Greg Wyshynski, NHL reporter: Brandon Hagel. Coach Jon Cooper known as him “the straw that’s been stirring us” in these playoffsand for good purpose. He’s scored. He’s fought. He’s antagonized the Canadiens. He’s gone from being a terrific two-way participant to at least one with gravitas.

Look no additional than the Game 6 time beyond regulation winner: How Hagel dekes round one Montreal participant after which magnetically attracts two others to open up the deep a part of the zone the place Gage Goncalves finally scored. He’s one of many predominant causes they’re in a Game 7. Might as effectively be the rationale they win it.

The final score can be _____.

Clark: 3-2 Canadiens in OT.

Kaplan: 2-1 Lightning in OT.

Matiash: 3-2 Lightning.

Ocal: 2-1 Habs in triple time beyond regulation. Because after the sequence they’ve had, why not?

Shilton: 2-1 Lightning in double OT.

Wyshynski: 4-2 Lightning, redeeming themselves in entrance of the house followers after an embarrassing Game 5 effort.