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Belief is a mental representation of what is true. It takes a combination of one's perception and knowledge to come to a conclusion about what is most likely to occur, and thus, what one believes.
Do you believe?
It's hard not to look at the 3-1 deficit the Montreal Canadiens are facing and not feel a twinge of dread. Never in this storied franchise's history has an edition of the Montreal Canadiens come back from a 3-0 series' deficit. Never before has this happened... This knowledge informs a conclusion that the likelihood of the Canadiens coming back in this series is almost close to none. Barring a miracle... barring the Habs pulling off something that the franchise has never accomplished before.
A miracle - something we should not expect to happen - can sometimes come as the cause of a lack of knowledge. There are some things that as fans we cannot know, for example, what was said at a team dinner on Wednesday night after game 3. As fans we take what knowledge we have, what we see in the game, what we hear off the ice. We judge the athlete's response, the coach's demeanour in his post-game conference. We come away with an impression, and this impression forms our belief. We live, and learn.
What the Canadiens learned on Thursday night has given them a greater reason to believe they can win another game against the Lightning. The Habs are not looking past the task at hand of extending the series. Being on season death-watch, the Habs are not thinking beyond what they can grasp.
#TBLightning D Jason Garrison this afternoon: "I do not want to go to Montreal. I love the city but I don’t want to go there." #HabsIO
— Dave Stubbs (@Dave_Stubbs) May 8, 2015
Pacioretty on difference tonight: "There’s no difference, we played w/ confidence, we knew we were desperate, our backs against the wall"
— Dave Stubbs (@Dave_Stubbs) May 8, 2015
The puck drops at 7:00 PM EST. Nathan Beaulieu has been given clearance to play, and at the morning skate he was paired up with Tom Gilbert, indicating he will be back in the lineup tonight in place of Greg Pateryn.
In Canada (French): TVA Sports
| Left Wing |
Center |
Right Wing |
| Max Pacioretty | Tomas Plekanec | Brendan Gallagher |
| Alex Galchenyuk | David Desharnais | Dale Weise |
| Brandon Prust | Lars Eller | P.A. Parenteau |
| Jacob de la Rose | Torrey Mitchell | Devante Smith-Pelly |
| Left Defense |
Right Defense |
| Andrei Markov | P.K. Subban |
| Alexei Emelin | Jeff Petry |
| Tom Gilbert | Nathan Beaulieu |
|
Goaltenders |
| Carey Price |
| Dustin Tokarski |
Scratched: Mike Weaver, Manny Malholtra, Sergei Gonchar, Brian Flynn, Greg Pateryn
Injuries: None
| Left Wing |
Center |
Right Wing |
| Alex Killorn | Steven Stamkos | Ryan Callahan |
| Ondrej Palat | Tyler Johnson | Nikita Kucherov |
| Cedric Paquette | Valterri Filppula | J.T. Brown |
| Jonathan Drouin | Brian Boyle | Vladislav Namestnikov |
| Left Defense |
Right Defense |
| Victor Hedman | Anton Stralman |
| Jason Garrison | Braydon Coburn |
| Matthew Carle | Andrej Sustr |
|
Goaltenders |
| Ben Bishop |
| Andrei Vasilevski |
Scratched: Mark Barberio, Nikita Nesterov, Brenden Morrow
Injuries: Mattias Ohlund (knee)
Check out the enemy over at Raw Charge.