The same woman who did the Canadian anthem is back for Game 2. Another loss is due.
First period
The top lines hems the Lightning in for a full minute to open the game. They were even able to make a change on the fly despite the bench being on the other half of the ice.
Scott Sabourin comes on the ice the first time Josh Anderson comes out. Sabourin gets in Anderson’s face. Anderson laughs.
Alex Newhook catches the Lightning with too many forwards pressing for offence, ...
2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs – Eastern Conference QFs
Game 2: Montreal Canadiens (A3) @ Tampa Bay Lightning (A2)
MTL leads series 1-0
Start time: 7:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM PDT In Canada: CBC, Sportsnet (English), TVA Sports (French) In the United States: ESPN2 In the Lightning region: The Spot Streaming: ESPN+, Sportsnet+
Charle-Edouard D’Astous is unable to play today after his head contacted Jake Evans’s on a hard hit from Josh Anderson in Game 1. In his place comes Declan...
In what could be series-defining news, the Tampa Bay Lightning will likely be without top defenseman Victor Hedman for their entire first-round series with the Montreal Canadiens. Tuesday morning, head coach Jon Cooper called Hedman "doubtful" for the rest of the series. Jon Cooper says Hedman returning is on “the doubtful side for this series.” https://t.co/nVSdnM1fNl — Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) April 21, 2026 “I wouldn’t rule anything out,” Cooper said, “but I’d say I’d put ...
Game Two: Montreal Canadiens (1-0) at Tampa Bay Lightning (0-1)
Time: 7:00 PM EST
Location: Benchmark International Arena, Tampa, Florida
TV/Stream/Radio: The Spot, ESPN2, 102.5 FM, Lightning App
Odds: Lightning -192
Know the Opponents: Habs Eyes on the Prize
“We know we have better in us.” If you’ve been around the Tampa Bay Lightning long enough then you’ve heard the phrase before. Much like you’ve heard “Process over Outcome” “Turn the Page” and several other p...
2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs – Eastern Conference QFs
Game 2: Montreal Canadiens (A3) @ Tampa Bay Lightning (A2)
MTL leads series 1-0
Start time: 7:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM PDT In Canada: CBC, Sportsnet (English), TVA Sports (French) In the United States: ESPN2 In the Lightning region: The Spot Streaming: ESPN+, Sportsnet+
The Montreal Canadiens didn’t have much luck with broken sticks during the regular season. Their fortunes didn’t suddenly change when the post-season began on S...
The Stanley Cup Playoffs continue all week long after an excellent start over the weekend.
The playoffs have already delivered some chaos: the Buffalo Sabres stormed back late to stun the Boston Bruins, the Montreal Canadiens won Game 1 against the Tampa Bay Lightning in overtime thanks to a hat trick from Juraj Slafkovsky, and the Minnesota Wild crushed the Dallas Stars early just to remind everyone brackets aren’t set in stone. Meanwhile, the Colorado Avalanche and Vegas Golden Knights ...
There were a couple of unwelcome regular season trends that carried over to the postseason in the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Game One loss to the Montreal Canadiens. The Lightning were behind early. They came back to tie the Habs late, only to give up the go-ahead, and in this case, game-winning goal. The most unwelcome continuing trend was a Lightning player leaving the game early due to an injury.
Last night it was defenseman Charle-Edouar D’Astous who only played 9:35, leaving the game in t...
The Tampa Bay Lightning played in three consecutive Stanley Cup Finals in 2020-2022. The Florida Panthers followed that up with three appearances of their own in 2023-25 and the Edmonton Oilers’ quest for a third consecutive Stanley Cup Final appearance begins tonight against a young, fast, and inexperienced Anaheim Ducks club. The 82-game regular season…
The underdog Montreal Canadiens were in Florida on Sunday night to start their playoff series with the Tampa Bay Lightning. The game had all of the intensity that their final regular season meeting suggested the series would eventually have, culminating in an overtime thriller. The Habs’ mission in going to Tampa was clear; try to take at least one of the two games and get a split before going back to Montreal. Not only did they accomplish that mission in game one, they have a chance to make i...
It’s not easy to sit down and answer questions fifteen minutes after losing a Stanley Cup playoff game. Heck, it’s not easy doing it after a win. Luckily, Coach Jon Cooper has a quite a bit of experience of doing both. Following the Lightning’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Montreal Canadiens, here is what he had to say to the media:
When asked if had a problem with the penalties and the way the Lightning approached the game, he chuckled and replied,
“No, I had a problem with us....
The Lightning deserve to lose this game just for picking that singer for O Canada.
First period
With the arena about as loud as when the Canadiens introduce their training camp in the home-opener, the puck drops in Game 1.
A collision between Arber Xhekaj and Dominic James sends the Lightning forward to the ice writhing in pain. It looks like Tampa Bay is down to 11 forwards early.
The Canadiens leave the slot completely abandoned and left Erik Cernak step up to the has...
2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs – Eastern Conference QFs
Game 1: Montreal Canadiens (A3) @ Tampa Bay Lightning (A2)
Start time: **5:45 PM EDT / 2:45 PM PDT** In Canada: CBC, Sportsnet (English), TVA Sports (French) In the United States: TNT, truTV In the Lightning region: The Spot Streaming: HBO Max , Sportsnet+
After 82 games, the Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning each had 106 points, ranking fifth and sixth in the overall NHL standings. Their reward for such impressiv...
Matt Drake, Jared Book, and Patrik Bexell join the podcast for a round table ahead of the upcoming Stanley Cup Playoffs series between the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Montreal Canadiens. The first thing that is being discussed is the physicality of the series and the fact that Montreal looks to be in a better position to handle it this season compared to last season’s series against the Washington Capitals.
One of the key themes early in the podcast was the uncertainty around Victor Hedma...
Game One: Montreal Canadiens (0-0) at Tampa Bay Lightning (0-0)
Time: 5:45 PM EST
Location: Benchmark International Arena, Tampa, Florida
TV/Stream/Radio: The Spot, TNT, HBOMax, TruTV, ESPN+, 102.5 FM, Lightning App
Odds: Lightning -185
Know the Opponents: Habs Eyes on the Prize
The previews are done . We’ve talked all we can on how we think this series is going to go, and now it’s time for the action on the ice. After a long, fairly successful season that had a f...
COLORADO AVALANCHE vs. LOS ANGELES KINGS
WHEN: 3 p.m. ET
WHERE: Ball Arena – Denver, CO
SEASON SERIES: Colorado won 3-0
ON THE TUBE: TNT
PROJECTED STARTERS: Avalanche: Wedgewood (31-6-6 .921 / 2.02 4SO) Kings: Forsberg (16-12-5 .910 / 2.57 3SO)
PLAYER STATS: Colorado / Los Angeles
TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING vs. MONTREAL CANADIENS
WHEN: 5:45 p.m. ET
WHERE: Benchmark International Arena – Tampa, FL...
2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs – Eastern Conference QFs
Game 1: Montreal Canadiens (A3) @ Tampa Bay Lightning (A2)
Start time: **5:45 PM EDT / 2:45 PM PDT** In Canada: CBC, Sportsnet (English), TVA Sports (French) In the United States: TNT, truTV In the Lightning region: The Spot Streaming: HBO Max , Sportsnet+
After a rough start to the 2024-25 season, the Canadiens had to exhaust their energy reserves over the final third of the season just to make the playoffs. It took winni...
On Friday, the Tampa Bay Lightning did something they haven’t done for almost an entire month – had a long, almost fully attended practice. Due to the compressed nature of the schedule at the end of the season, the deluge of injuries both major and minor, and a coach that favors rest for his veterans over ice time, the Lightning really haven’t had a full fledged practice session since shortly after the Olympic Break.
The most encouraging part of the day was that everybody was on the ice. ...
With the final regular season games concluding late Thursday night (and having a bearing on the final Western Conference seedings) the NHL’s first round schedule took a little while to complete. In the wee early hours of Friday morning, it finally dropped. Along with the other fourteen teams left competing, the Tampa Bay Lightning and Montreal Canadiens finally learned exactly when they’ll be competing against each other over the next two weeks.
For those of you in the Tampa area who feel...
After the Buffalo Sabres clinched the Atlantic Division on Monday night, the only thing left to determine was where the first-round series between the Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning would start. With Montreal’s loss on Tuesday night in Philadelphia, Tampa Bay secured the second seed in the division, and gets to play the opening two games, and Game 7 if it reaches that point, at Benchmark International Arena in Tampa, Florida.
The NHL released the full schedule for the series, ...
Despite the match-ups not being entirely set as the Western Conference is coming down to their final game for seedings, the NHL has released the dates (but not all of the times) for the opening games of the first-round playoff series.
The 2026 #StanleyCup Playoffs begin Saturday!
The one guarantee this year: There will be a new champion.
Tune in on /ESPN, /NHL_On_TNT, /Sportsnet and /TVASports. Full schedule to be announced after all First Round matchups are set later tonight.
Details...
The Rangers won their final game, moved to fourth in draft lottery odds, and gave us one last reminder of why this year was so hard to watch.
We could spend the next 1,000 words breaking down the action of the Tampa Bay Lightning’s 4-2 loss to the New York Rangers in the final game of the regular season. However, nothing structurally or strategically from tonight’s defeat will carry forward into the playoffs. Jake Guentzel, Brayden Point, Anthony Cirelli, J.J. Moser, Ryan McDonagh, and Andrei Vasilevskiy were high-priced fans for the night. The loss didn’t hurt the Lightning and the win didn’t help the Rangers. So, it was meaningles...
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Game Eighty-Two : New York Rangers (33-39-9) at Tampa Bay Lightning (50-25-6)
Time: 7:00 PM EST
Location: Benchmark International Arena, Tampa – The site of Wayne Gretzky’s final All-Star Game (he had a goal and an assist). Question – who was the Lightning’s All-Star that season?
TV/Stream/Radio: The Spot, MSG, TVAS2, ESPN+, 102.5 FM, Lightning App
Odds: Lightning -115
Know the Opponents: Blue Shirt Banter
Look at that. We’ve made it to the end of the season. It t...
With the Montreal Canadiens losing (in regulation) their final game of the regular season, the Tampa Bay Lightning have secured home ice in their first-round match-up that starts this weekend. Is that a good thing? After all, this is a team that is 1-7 at home during their last three playoff series. In case you were wondering, yes, they lost all three of those series.
What’s been even more frustrating is that the Lightning had been very, very good at home during the regular season. Over t...