Tampa Lost An Unlosable Game

A hockey player is prepared for randomness and bad luck by an entire career's worth of suffering at its whims. All they can do is pray it doesn't come for them in a big game. It came for the Lightning in a Game 7, a 2-1 Canadiens win to send Montreal to the second round and send Tampa into an offseason without even the courtesy of giving them things to kill time regretting. “We couldn’t have played it any better,” head coach Jon Cooper said. The Lightning outshot the Habs 29-9. How rough was it back there for eternal Vezina finalist Andrei Vasilevskiy? In the night's other NHL game, Jesper Wallstedt and Scott Wedgewood gave up eight and six goals, respectively, and both had better save percentages on the night than Vasilevskiy. It wasn't even his fault, really. Two of the Canadiens' nine chances wouldn't even have counted as shots on goal if they hadn't been goals. In the first, Kaiden Guhle flung a prayer at the net that plinked and plunked its way to twine. In the third, Alex Newhook whacked a puck out of the air off of Vasilevskiy's butt and in.