Steven Stamkos, Power Play Rejuvenated as Lightning Take Stranglehold on Series

Game 2 of the second-round series between Montreal and Tampa Bay started out like something straight out of the dreams of Canadiens head coach Michel Therrien. Montreal jumped out to an early 1-0 lead and dominated in all three zones, posting an 11-5 edge in shots and holding the Lightning without even one scoring chance over the first half of the opening period.

By the end of the 6-2 Lightning win, Therrien was channeling his nightmares.

Tampa Bay entered Game 2 with several problems. The power play wasn’t executing. Captain and primary offensive weapon Steven Stamkos was goalless in the playoffs. By the end of Game 2, the power play was red-hot, Stamkos had a goal and two assists and the Lightning had a 2-0 lead in the series. 

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"I think we can really take a stranglehold on this series," Lightning defenceman Matt Carle told NHL.com's Sean Farrell prior to Sunday's game. That's exactly what happened. 

The Habs, who have scored all of eight goals in their last six games, face the arduous prospect of trying to come back from being down 2-0. 

During the the first round, the NHL's public relations department tweeted out how rare it is for a team to come back from a 2-0 hole:

It's a statistic that improved marginally for the front-runners when the Canadiens knocked out the Sens in six games in the first round.  

In virtually any hockey game, it is far too simplistic to pick a single turning point, as though the narrative of the game were a ship on a course and we could identify the moment the helm changed direction, but there is a compelling candidate in this contest. A little over a dozen minutes into the first period, with Montreal dominating the play and holding a 1-0 lead, Canadiens forward Brandon Prust took two minor penalties in front of the Lightning net.

The first was an obvious roughing penalty:

After taking that minor, Prust tried to negate it by goading Lightning defenceman Braydon Coburn into taking a retaliatory penalty, putting his glove repeatedly in Coburn’s face. Coburn declined to respond, and Prust took a second penalty for unsportsmanlike play in the process.

Some believe Coburn should have responded physically, including Sportsnet analyst Don Cherry, who loudly decried Coburn’s stoicism while a replay ran during the first intermission.

"I will never, ever want one of my players acting like Coburn here," Cherry said. "I don’t care if [it is] the Stanley Cup. This is Sedin stuff! Look at him! He’s from Alberta. ... Look at that, born in Calgary. Look at that!"

In a game where the referees aren’t interested in enforcing the rulebook, Cherry would arguably have been right. This wasn’t one of those games. (It’s worth noting that Coburn dropped the gloves with Prust late in the third period, after the Montreal forward made contact with goalie Ben Bishop.)

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Prust’s total lack of discipline kicked off a parade of the same from his teammates. P.K. Subban, Alexei Emelin, Tom Gilbert, Jeff Petry, Dale Weise and Torrey Mitchell (for a faceoff violation) didn’t just take penalties; they all took stupid penalties.

All those penalties gave the Lightning plenty of time to work out the kinks on the man advantage and gave the Canadiens precious little opportunity to fight their way back into the game as Tampa Bay started scoring goals. In all, the Bolts picked up four goals on the power play, including the game-winner. Several players ended up with multiple points on those goals, including the struggling Stamkos, who tallied a pair of assists.

Just for good measure, one of the Lightning’s two non-power-play goals came from their much-criticized captain:

Stamkos added his two assists after that marker, and it’s fair to wonder how much of a difference the goal is going to make for him. He didn’t start the night well; on the Lightning’s first power play, he turned the puck over during a baffling dance at the offensive blue line, leading to a great short-handed opportunity for Montreal’s Brian Flynn. He got steadily better after the goal, and if he’s on his game the rest of the way, the series will be even more challenging for the Habs.

The rejuvenated power play is an ugly turn for Montreal, too. Tampa Bay entered the game with just two goals and a 5.9 percent success rating on the man advantage; now it has six goals and is clicking along at 14.3 percent.

And, if getting the man advantage and their best player back on track weren’t enough, the Lightning take a 2-0 series lead with them as the games shift to Tampa Bay. Even if Montreal plays extremely well, winning four of five games under these conditions is going to be very difficult.

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Therrien, of course, can’t afford to worry about that. The big picture is what it is; right now, he has to get his own team playing better, or the result is going to be a foregone conclusion. He should probably start by addressing the total collapse of team discipline that led to this Game 2 debacle.

Statistics courtesy of NHL.com unless otherwise noted.

Jonathan Willis covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter for more of his work.