Jake Evans replaces Joel Armia in Canadiens Game 1 lineup

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Jake Evans replaced Joel Armia in the Montreal Canadiens lineup for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Monday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Armia missed practice on the eve of the series when he went into NHL COVID-19 protocol. He was cleared and flew on a private plane to Tampa hours before the game and took the ice for warmup but was still scratched.

“Very unfortunate, but hopefully we’ll get him back in a couple days here,” Canadiens defenseman Joel Edmundson said. “He’s been a big piece of our team in these playoffs. Especially on our penalty kill, he’s done great. … Hopefully we have him back soon.”

Armia has scored two of his five goals shorthanded this postseason and been a key part of Montreal’s penalty kill that is 43 of 46. He played all of the Canadiens previous 17 playoff games.

It was Evans’ first game in almost a month. He was injured in Game 1 of the second round against Winnipeg on a charging play that led to Mark Scheifele being suspended.

“I think there’s always probably awareness when anyone comes back from an injury, and you know you’re going to protect yourself,” said acting coach Luke Richardson, who’s filling in while Dominque Ducharme is in protocol after testing positive. “But I think a hockey player’s instinct is you play the game and you play the way you play it. And Jake’s a guy that plays the game hard.”

Evans has been healthy since the last series, but the Canadiens did not want to change a winning lineup. Teammates watched Evans work hard to get back and are proud of that effort.

“Obviously he had a tough go there in the Winnipeg series but went through the right protocol to be where we are today,” forward Josh Anderson said. “We’re excited to see him back on the ice and be in that locker room, for sure.”

STATUS QUO LIGHTNING

Tampa Bay used the same lineup for the series opener against Montreal as it did in the semifinal clincher against the New York Islanders on Friday night. That means winger Nikita Kucherov playing after he missed almost all of Game 6 Wednesday with an undisclosed injury he’s now saying never happened.

“There was no injury,” Kucherov said Sunday. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I feel good. All good.”

HALL OF FAME TWEETS

Hockey players need to put together an illustrious career on the ice to get into the Hall of Fame. Fans just need to send a good tweet.

The NHL and Twitter on Monday are inviting fans to tweet about what it would mean for their team to win the Stanley Cup. The top 52 will be etched into a silver plate and go into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.

“The thought was really finding a way to give fans recognition for their commitment the same way that we would with the players themselves,” NHL executive vice president and chief marketing officer Heidi Browning said.

The #StanleyTweets social media endeavor launches on the day of Game 1 of the final between the Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning. While the Lightning are trying to win back to back, the Canadiens are looking for their first championship since 1993.

“Back in ’93, you’d go, ‘How is this going to work?’” Cup keeper Phil Pritchard from the Hockey Hall of Fame said. “Because of the way social media influences everything now and the way fans have become instrumental in teams’ social media sites and cheering on their favorite players and teams, it’s a natural now.”

The goal is to pick 52 tweets — in multiple languages — to correspond to the 52 names the winning team gets on the Cup each season. NHL social media director Sean Dennison said the hope is for tweets that evoke emotion and sentimentality with some humor mixed in.

“We want this to be as symbolic of the Cup as possible and since 52 names get put on the Cup, let’s recognize 52 fans,” he said. “The modern day fan experience really does take place on social media and especially on Twitter. It captures what people are saying, and I think that’s an important part of the story for our sport and for a Stanley Cup win.”

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Follow AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno on Twitter at https://twitter.com/SWhyno

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