Corey Perry calls out Canadiens D after Moser OT winner

The 40-year-old veteran did not dress up his words.

“We just kept rolling, just kept going, kept putting the puck in, kept getting after their D,” Perry said after the final buzzer, as reported by journalist Gabby Shirley on X. “That’s how we play. We play fast. We were out of our zone quick and a hell of a shot by Mo.”

Perry was not talking about the system in general terms. He was calling out a specific thing Tampa Bay did, and it worked.

Kirby Dach’s struggles hand Tampa Bay a blueprint for this series

Dach has 1 point in 2 playoff games, and his underlying numbers tell a harder story. Over his last 10 regular-season games, he had just 1 point and went -3. In the playoffs so far, he’s gone minus-1 with no goals, no power play points, and no shots last night.

Tampa Bay did not stumble onto that overtime winner. They engineered it.

That is the part Perry’s quote makes plain. The Lightning had a game plan built around pressuring Montreal’s blue line, and the Canadiens defense gave them the space to execute it in OT.

The series is tied 1-1, heading back to Montreal. What Martin St-Louis does with Dach’s role in Game 3 matters. He cannot let Perry’s scouting report go unanswered.

Montreal finished the regular season 48-24-10 with 106 points. Tampa Bay went 50-26-6 with 106 points of their own. On paper, this is dead even. But right now, the Lightning’s veteran leadership is controlling the conversation, and Perry is doing it out loud.