Montreal Canadiens forward Joel Armia has been placed in the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol and didn’t travel with the team to Tampa Bay on Sunday, a day before Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final.
General manager Marc Bergevin made the announcement after Armia was not at practice in Montreal before the Canadiens traveled to play the Lightning. Bergevin would only say he’ll have an update Monday.
It’s unclear how long Armia will be in the protocol or whether he tested positive. Armia spent 19 days in the protocol spanning March and April after contracting the British variant.
Armia has already posted playoff career bests with five goals and eight points in 17 games while playing on what’s considered Montreal’s energy line with veterans Corey Perry and Eric Staal.
“It’s not ideal,” defenseman Ben Chiarot said of Armia’s status. “It’s something we’ve kind of been dealing with all year, guys going out to the COVID protocol. . . . It’s just another piece of adversity we’ll have to deal with.”
The Canadiens are without interim coach Dominique Ducharme, who remains in isolation since testing positive for COVID-19 on June 18.
Assistant coach Luke Richardson has taken over bench duties, with Ducharme not scheduled to return until Friday, when the Canadiens host Game 3. Ducharme missed the final four games of Montreal’s six-game semifinal series win over Vegas.
Defending champs vs. royalty
This year’s Stanley Cup Final pits the defending champions against the NHL’s most decorated franchise. Tampa Bay is going for a third title since beginning play in 1993, the last year the Canadiens — or any team from Canada — won the Cup, making this a matchup of old-school winners against a modern-hockey model of success.
“A lot of people need to do a lot of good work in order to build a good organization,” said Lightning general manager Julien BriseBois, who cut his teeth with the Canadiens. “Both organizations have really strong ownership, passionate fan bases, good coaching, strong support staff and ultimately really good players, and that’s why we’re going to be facing each other in the Stanley Cup [Final] this year.”
Montreal is looking to hang a 25th Cup banner in the rafters at Bell Centre with a team that has plenty of similarities to Tampa Bay’s 2015 group. That was the last time these teams met in a playoff series, and it was in the second round.
The Lightning now are a grizzled group with a handful of heartbreaking losses and the 2020 bubble triumph in the rearview mirror.
“It took a lot to get here: the heartbreak in 2015 getting all the way to the final and losing and then 2016 going to Game 7 against [Pittsburgh], losing that one, 2018 against Barry Trotz [and the Washington Capitals] — he beat us in Game 7 in this building, the heartbreak to Columbus in 2019,” coach Jon Cooper said. “It was all building blocks to get to here.”
Until this improbable run led by goaltender Carey Price, the Canadiens hadn’t won a series — not including last year’s bubble play-in round against the Penguins — since losing to the Lightning six years ago. Qualifying for the playoffs just twice in the previous five seasons made for plenty of turnover, so this young Montreal team reflects Tampa Bay teams of the recent past.
And the Lightning have over time learned how translate the lessons that come from losing into winning.
“For us now, we’ve been in a lot of these series,” veteran forward Alex Killorn said. “Just going through that you learn a ton. You learn how in series you’ve got to be even keel. You’ve got to realize that things aren’t always going to go your way. You might get a bad call, this might happen, that might happen. . . . And I think the older you get, you might have just more experience.”
Bergevin ‘not aware’ of Blackhawks allegations
Bergevin, who previously worked for the Blackhawks, said he did not take part in any meetings or become involved in any decisions made in regards to sexual assault allegations made against former Chicago assistant coach Bradley Aldrich.
“I was not aware of anything going on at the time, so you can go on the record with that,” Bergevin said.
He was responding to a question regarding an unidentified former player launching a lawsuit against the team alleging the Blackhawks did nothing after the player told them he was sexually assaulted by Aldrich during Chicago’s Stanley Cup title run.
Bergevin was the Blackhawks’ director of player personnel in 2010. He was eventually promoted to the position of assistant GM before being hired by the Canadiens in May 2012.
According to TSN, two Blackhawks players told then-skills coach Paul Vincent in May 2010 of inappropriate behavior by Aldrich. Vincent then asked team executives, including team president John McDonough and general manager Stan Bowman, to report the allegations to Chicago police, but his request was rejected.
A rare ‘Maroon three’ possible
Lightning forward Patrick Maroon goes into the Final with a chance to become the first NHL player to win the Stanley Cup three years in a row on at least two different teams. The St. Louis native who helped the Blues win it all in 2019 would be the first to hoist the Cup three times in a row since the New York Islanders’ dynasty of the early 1980s.
“Job’s not done yet, but it’s cool to be put in that category,” Maroon said. “I’m playing on really good teams and teams that want to get over the hump and teams that want to win every single night. I’m lucky enough to play with such good guys, character guys that get it and I’m just there.”