{"id":616257,"date":"2026-04-19T02:35:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T02:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/616257\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T02:35:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T02:35:07","slug":"underdogs-or-not-montreal-canadiens-ready-to-face-experienced-tampa-bay-lightning-in-first-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/616257\/","title":{"rendered":"Underdogs or not, Montreal Canadiens ready to face experienced Tampa Bay Lightning in first round"},"content":{"rendered":"

BROSSARD \u2014 Martin St. Louis<\/a> isn\u2019t concerned with labels.<\/p>\n

The Montreal Canadiens<\/a> coach knows his team is facing a perennial contender in the Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a>. He\u2019s also confident his group can match up.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether we\u2019re the favourite, underdog, that\u2019s why we play the game,\u201d St. Louis said this week. \u201cWe\u2019re not worried about this. We\u2019re going to go play the games.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll give you facts, OK? They\u2019re a veteran team that\u2019s been pretty much the standard in the last seven-plus years \u2014 eight years, 10 years. They\u2019re good. We\u2019re good too. Those are just facts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The young, exciting Canadiens open the highly anticipated first-round NHL playoff series against the battle-tested Lightning on Sunday in Tampa, Fla. It\u2019s a rematch of the 2021 Stanley Cup final, won in five games by Tampa Bay, though plenty has changed since.<\/p>\n

Montreal (48-24-10) is headed to the playoffs for a second straight season after last year\u2019s surprising berth signaled the end of a full-scale rebuild. A strong regular season also has Habs fans dreaming of a deep run this spring.<\/p>\n

In a wave of offensive milestones not seen in a generation, captain Nick Suzuki<\/a> became the first Canadien to reach 100 points in 40 years, while winger Cole Caufield<\/a> hit the 50-goal mark, something no Montreal player had done since 1990.<\/p>\n

Star blueliner Lane Hutson<\/a>, meanwhile, tied Larry Robinson<\/a> for the most assists by a Canadiens defenceman in a single season (66) and skilled forward Ivan Demidov<\/a> led all NHL rookies with 62 points.<\/p>\n

Even the team\u2019s goaltending \u2014 a concern most of the season \u2014 has stabilized with Jakub Dobes<\/a> posting a .916 save percentage since the NHL returned from the Olympic break. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe know the type of guys that they have over there that have a lot of experience and know what they\u2019re doing,\u201d Caufield said. \u201cBut we have belief in our room and our guys that play the right way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think those are the things that give us a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Tampa Bay (50-26-6), it\u2019s a ninth consecutive trip to the post-season, with superstar forward Nikita Kucherov<\/a> driving the offence and V\u00e9zina Trophy winner Andrei Vasilevskiy<\/a> in goal.<\/p>\n

The Lightning, however, have been bounced in the first round for three consecutive years, including twice by the eventual Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes that come up? Has it come up during the year that we haven\u2019t advanced? There\u2019s no question,\u201d Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. \u201cAnd can that be used as motivation? Yes, but it\u2019s not going to guarantee how we do. <\/p>\n

\u201cI remember the feeling I had after we lost to Columbus (in 2019). My goodness, that was a crushing playoff sweep, and then we won 11 playoff series in a row. And so our job is, you know, hopefully we\u2019ve got this group \u2014 and I feel like we do \u2014 in a really motivational spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cooper also stopped short of labelling Montreal as an underdog, even if Tampa Bay is a heavy betting favourite. The Canadiens came out on top in two heated wins over the Lightning on March 31 and April 9.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are two 106-point teams, and the only reason we\u2019re getting home ice is because we had (more regulation wins). That\u2019s how close they are,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be a heck of a series, but I know our guys are prepared for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both teams will have to navigate the series with key absences on the blue line.<\/p>\n

The Canadiens will be without right-shot defenceman Noah Dobson<\/a>, who was injured blocking a shot with his left hand in game No. 80 of the regular season. The team said last Sunday that Dobson, who ranked third on the roster in average ice time, would be re-evaluated in two weeks.<\/p>\n

The Lightning are missing captain Victor Hedman<\/a> after he took a personal leave of absence in late March. Cooper said Saturday that Hedman is around the team and gradually returning to skating, but his return is not imminent.<\/p>\n

TALE OF THE TAPE<\/p>\n

Regular-season series: 2-2<\/p>\n

Goals for per game: Tampa Bay, 3.49 (4th); Montreal, 3.40 (7th)<\/p>\n

Goals against per game: Tampa Bay, 2.79 (3rd); Montreal, 3.06 (16th)<\/p>\n

Top points: Tampa Bay, Nikita Kucherov<\/a>, 130; Montreal, Nick Suzuki<\/a>, 101<\/p>\n

Goaltenders: Tampa Bay, Andrei Vasilevskiy<\/a>, 39-15-4, .912 save percentage; Montreal, Jakub Dobes<\/a>, 29-10-4, .901\/ Jacob Fowler<\/a>, 9-6-2, .908<\/p>\n

Power play: Tampa Bay, 20.7 (17th); Montreal, 23.1 (10th)<\/p>\n

Penalty kill: Tampa Bay, 82.6 (3rd); Montreal, 78.2 (18th)<\/p>\n

The big stat: The Lightning led the league with 1,207 penalty minutes this season, 229 more than the Boston Bruins<\/a>, who had the second most.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

With files from Canadian Press sports reporter Alexis B\u00e9langer-Champagne in Tampa, Fla.<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 18, 2026.<\/p>\n

Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BROSSARD \u2014 Martin St. Louis isn\u2019t concerned with labels. The Montreal Canadiens coach knows his team is facing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-616257","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}