Atlantic Division supremacy is the theme of the showdown, as the Montreal Canadiens host the Tampa Bay Lightning at 7:30 p.m. ET Tuesday in what could potentially be a second-round playoff matchup.
This is the first of three matchups before the end of the regular season between the Bolts and Habs, who are separated by just two points in the standings atop the Atlantic Division. Montreal is intent on staying first but fully aware of the challenge that awaits. The Lightning are 2-0-0 against the Canadiens this season.
"We all understand we have a huge challenge [Tuesday]. We're playing against the team that's scored the most goals in the NHL," Canadiens head coach Michel Therrien said Monday. "So they've got a lot of skill, a lot of potential offensively. They've got a lot of depth to score goals, and even their defensemen are really active. We're going to have to take their time and space away. But we all understand that this is an elite team in the NHL, and it's going to be a huge challenge for us."
It's a contrast of styles, to be sure, with the Canadiens the top NHL team in goals against per game and the Lightning -- as Therrien noted -- No. 1 in goals scored.
Within that matchup, we've decided to focus specifically on the showdown between the starting netminders: Ben Bishop for the Lightning versus the man having an MVP-like season, Carey Price.
Star Power: Steven Stamkos is the Lightning's superstar, but they'll need goaltending as well to make a deep playoff run. In 2013-14, Bishop was nominated for the Vezina Trophy after a breakthrough season in which he posted a .924 save percentage. But the Bolts were robbed of a chance to see if he could carry that into the postseason, as Bishop was injured late in the regular season and sat out as his team was swept by the Habs in the first round.
And so Bishop awaits his first NHL playoff game this spring.
It hasn't been as dominant a season for Bishop, with the 28-year-old sporting just a .913 save percentage. That said, injuries to the blue-line corps have certainly left him more open to quality scoring chances, as the high-scoring Bolts haven't been as tight defensively.
When Bishop is on his game, there doesn't seem to be anywhere to shoot the puck around his 6-foot-6 frame.
"He's a big body, uses it well, but you just can't be big -- you have to be able to move well too, and he does," Price said Monday when asked about Bishop. "He plays a little bit deeper. He does a really good job making the key saves at the right time for them. And he reads the play well."
Former St. Louis Blues goalie coach Corey Hirsch had Bishop while the two were in the Blues organization and remembered helping the young goalie use his massive frame to his advantage.
"When I got him, he was pretty raw, a young guy," Hirsch told ESPN.com Monday. "Obviously, you look at his size -- he's huge. We gave him some good goalie tactics back then. He doesn't need to be that aggressive because he covers so much net. It's similar to what Sean Burke did with [Devan] Dubnyk in Arizona this year."
While Bishop looks to get more consistent as the playoffs near, Price is having the kind of dominating, wire-to-wire season that will make him the favorite to win the Vezina Trophy as top goalie and perhaps also the Hart Trophy as league MVP. His league-leading .936 save percentage and 1.89 goals-against average are eye-popping numbers lifting a good hockey club into a great one.
"For the last two years, where I think he got better is how consistent he's been," Martin Brodeur, the NHL's all-time winningest goalie, told ESPN.com Monday. "There's no real dip in his game. They've given him the opportunity to play a lot, and while he's won some games by himself for them, the big thing to me is that he hasn't lost them games. It's a good sign. You can tell you're mature when you can go in and get yourself prepared, game in and game out. Every game looks the same to him, almost. He's been doing it for a while now. When I played, it was me, Patrick [Roy] and Dominik [Hasek], we played the bulk of the team's games. Now it's guys like [Henrik] Lundqvist, Price and [Jonathan] Quick,these are the guys playing with the workload. There's not a lot of guys able to do that, to have consistent success with a heavy workload."
As Therrien noted, at this point, what else can you say about Price? It's been simply amazing.
Strengths: Hirsch also coached Price on Canada's 2006 world junior team and feels there's a positive similarity between the netminders.
"Ben is a real competitor," Hirsch said. "There's a bit of an edge there, which is good, a bit of cockiness, which I really like. He's a bit like Carey that way. They're not too cocky, where it becomes a problem, but they have that swagger about them, which helps them succeed."
Where Price also draws comparisons -- most recently from Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock -- is to Brodeur, in terms of his relaxed and confident demeanor.
"Same as Marty: no pulse, so calm, everyone feeds off the calmness," Hitchcock, who coached Price at the Sochi Olympics, told ESPN.com on Feb. 24. "He makes everyone around him want to play for him."
"You see the charisma of a goalie. It's another reason why a lot of people think he's the best now, because he's got that personality and that confidence in himself," Brodeur said. "People see him, and they're comfortable with him, as far as his teammates and his organization and his fans. That goes a long way when you feel in control. That's his persona right now, that nobody is going to beat him at anytime. Having that swagger without being cocky. ... Sometimes you can be perceived to be cocky because you're so laid-back and confident in yourself. But he's just a kid who wants to play the game and wants to be successful. You can tell in his demeanor."
Hirsch brought that Brodeur-Price comparison to another level.
"Pricey is so mentally stable," he said. "He's so much stronger upstairs than most goalies. He's like Marty Brodeur that way. I don't know how they do it. Because I was a mental case when I played, always worried about getting scored on. But Price and Brodeur, they just don't worry. It's amazing. There aren't a lot of athletes like Price, never mind goalies. He's just so strong mentally."
Supporting Cast: This is where Bishop has the edge. The Lightning are a deeper team up front, a scoring machine that doesn't just rely on Stamkos but already has four 20-goal scorers and could have five or six before the regular season is over. The Lightning are also one of the top puck-possession teams. In contrast, the Canadiens have struggled offensively and rank in the bottom third in the puck-possession fancy stats. It paints a picture of Price needing to carry his team on many nights, while the pressure on Bishop is more about not losing games than single-handedly winning them.
Prediction: Montreal will beat Tampa before the season is over, but it won't be Tuesday night. I see the Canadiens having that traditional letdown coming off a West Coast trip. Price will once again be outstanding, but I see a 2-1 Bolts victory in overtime.