Before the series between the Montreal Canadiens and the Tampa Bay Lightning began, Ryan Callahan was outlined as a player that would instill the kind of playoff grit required for the Lightning to defeat the Canadiens. Well, it can’t be said that he didn’t lead by example. Two issues: that example was substantially poorer than anyone would have expected and almost all of his teammates seemed to follow suit.
Secondary scoring was always going to be a big part of this series, as Montreal’s trio of Max Pacioretty, David Desharnais and Thomas Vanek were expected to effectively cancel out Tampa’s Steven Stamkos, Ondrej Palat and Tyler Johnson. To some degree that was true as the Lightning trio accounted for 9 points while the Canadiens top line had 7 between them.
But after that there was no balance between the two team’s offensive outputs. 16 points were scored when excluding the aforementioned three for the Lightning, while PK Subban, Lars Eller and Brendan Gallagher almost equalled that point total on their own. Only Andrei Markov and Francois Bouillon did not record a point in the series for the Canadiens.
Tomas Plekanec is the perfect comparison player for Ryan Callahan, as both are the best forwards on their team outside of the top trio. The two of them are the embodiment of secondary scoring for their respective teams. Plekanec scored the Habs first goal of the series and was a force throughout. Callahan failed to register a point, and was almost invisible.
Overall, Plekanec had only 3 points in the series, 2 goals and an assist. But his impact on the series can hardly be seen in his basic stat-line. Plekanec had the lowest zone start ratio on the Habs, meaning he started a significant amount of his shifts in the defensive zone. He also had some of the highest quality of competition numbers on the team, essentially meaning he spent most of his ice time shutting down Steven Stamkos.
Most impressive, however, were Plekanec’s puck possession numbers during the series. He and his line were among the best on the team in this category, meaning not only did they shine in defending the Lightning’s best players they were able to keep the puck away from them as well.
The fact that even Montreal’s shutdown line out possessed and outscored the line with which they were matched up against shows the immensely impactful performance of Montreal’s secondary forward units.
Meanwhile, Callahan, with considerable more offensive zone starts and a lesser quality of competition, as Montreal and Tampa often elected to fight top line with top line, was considerably less effective than his adversary.
A hidden and debilitating injury for Callahan could potentially be released in the coming days, as is often the case when a player of his ilk underperforms to this level. But nonetheless the image remains the same, he was not good enough, nor were his teammates.
Plekanec was effective at both ends of the ice while providing key points, as did his teammates. Callahan failed to make an impact in the series and support the contributions of his team’s top line, the rest of his teammates followed suit. This was ultimately the difference, and the main reason the Lightning were the first team eliminated from the 2013-14 Stanley Cup playoffs.
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