Three nights that reshaped a series began with a man in a No. 77 jersey staring into the abyss and ended with the same player raising his stick to a roaring Bell Centre crowd. Kirby Dach completed the sharpest of rehabilitations on Friday, scoring a goal and adding an assist in Montreal’s 3-2 overtime victory over Tampa Bay, a result that vaulted the Canadiens to a 2-1 first-round lead and recast the narrative around a player who had become the target of social media vitriol after a catastrophic icing error in Game 2. That the winner was supplied by defenceman Lane Hutson, rifling a slapshot past the Lightning goaltender just over two minutes into the extra frame, only deepened the sense that the hockey gods were writing scripts no studio could commission.

Viewed from a Bell Centre press gallery, the evening represented a study in the peculiar emotional economy of a fanbase that can demand tar and feathers on Tuesday and offer canonisation by Friday night. Head coach Martin St. Louis, widely praised in French-language commentary for shielding his player from the mob and restoring Dach to his natural centre position alongside Alexandre Texier and Zachary Bolduc, was rewarded with the line’s most influential performance of the post-season.

In shifting Dach back to the middle, St. Louis did more than adjust a formation; he signalled a managerial philosophy that prizes rehabilitation over retribution, a gamble that paid out almost immediately when Dach equalised in the second period and later helped tilt the ice in a contest where every game has now required overtime. Beyond the Quebec border, the broader playoff landscape offered a sharp counterpoint.

In Anaheim, the Edmonton Oilers’ defensive frailty reached a crisis point as they shipped seven goals to the Ducks in a 7-4 defeat, falling behind 2-1 in their own series. Connor McDavid registered his first goal and multi-point outing of the playoffs, and the power play finally clicked, yet those flickers were submerged beneath a defensive performance that head coach Kris Knoblauch described as lacking “simplicity and hardness.” Analysts in London note that a roster built for Stanley Cup contention, having reached the final in each of the past two campaigns, has now conceded 16 goals across three games against a young Anaheim side playing its first home playoff fixture in eight years. The contrast with Montreal’s disciplined structure in tight games is becoming the defining subplot of this opening round.

The coaching duel in the Montreal-Tampa Bay series has meanwhile acquired its own theatrical dimensions. Jon Cooper, the Lightning’s veteran bench boss, has drawn considerable scrutiny from Quebec commentators after deploying his timeout late in Game 3 in a manner some have labelled an effrontery, an attempt to disrupt the flow that would, were it attempted by St. Louis with such stakes, presumably cost him the loyalty of the faithful.

Cooper has spent much of the series matching Anthony Cirelli’s checking line against Nick Suzuki’s top unit, a strategy that has yielded four goals for Brandon Hagel but paradoxically muted the Lightning’s own catalysts, with Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point yet to impose themselves at even strength. In Swiss sporting circles, attention has settled on the misfortune of defenceman Janis Moser, whose Game 2 heroics in Tampa now feel distant as his Lightning side stare at a series deficit heading into Game 4, which remains in Montreal before the scene shifts back to Florida. Cooper admitted he expects more from his stars, a remark that carries the freight of a coach who knows the margin between a 2-2 series and a 3-1 hole is measured in a single bounce.

Looking ahead, the Montreal-Tampa Bay series has acquired the texture of a psychological marathon, one that St. Louis, who has confessed to unwinding with reruns of a classic sitcom after games, seems peculiarly equipped to withstand. Edmonton’s predicament, viewed from western Canadian press rooms, is more existential: the Oilers must rediscover defensive cohesion or face an ignominious early exit that would reverberate far beyond Alberta.

For now, the first round offers no certainties, only the knowledge that a 72-hour swing can turn villainy into valour, and that the hardest currency in spring hockey remains the capacity to forget yesterday’s misery before the next puck drops.