Tampa Bay Lightning at Montreal Canadiens
One player who should be considered among the front-runners for MVP this year is Tampa goalie Ben Bishop. Unfortunately, Bishop left their last game after taking a knee to the head from a teammate and did not return. He did practice with the team on Friday morning, so his status goes a long way in determining the outlook for this game; backup goalie Anders Lindback has been below-average all season long and Tampa will have trouble keeping the puck out of their net if Lindback does get the call. Even if it is Bishop, you have to wonder what kind of condition he’s in.
The Habs went to Boston and beat the Bruins on Thursday night despite it looking like a good spot for Beantown. That makes back to back wins for the Habs but of course there’s a caveat to that: teams will do well when their goalies sport a .986 save percentage for any stretch of time. Basically, nothing has changed for Montreal in those wins other than the rate at which their goaltenders allow goals. That doesn’t give me confidence for this game.
Basically, this game comes down to whoever is in net. If it’s Lindback – or maybe even third-string goalie Cedric Desjarding – for the Lightning, then I think this game gets high-scoring. If not, this could very well be a replication of the two games these teams have played against each other this year that both went to a shootout tied 1-1.
Top RW Value |
Top LW Value |
Top C Value |
Top D Value |
Bargain Bin |
(MTL) $6548 |
(MTL) $10,442 |
(MTL) $5148 |
(MTL) $7538 |
(TBL) $2685 |