{"id":626386,"date":"2026-04-23T19:56:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T19:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/626386\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T19:56:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T19:56:08","slug":"did-we-look-intimidated-canadiens-brush-off-bolts-bully-approach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/626386\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Did we look intimidated?” Canadiens brush off Bolts’ bully approach"},"content":{"rendered":"

BROSSARD \u2014 Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a> head coach Jon Cooper said that his team is OK playing the role of the villain.<\/p>\n

The Montreal Canadiens<\/a> are not taking the bait.<\/p>\n

Led by scrappy forward Brandon Hagel<\/a>, the Lightning earned a physical 3-2 overtime win in Game 2 on Wednesday to even the first-round series between the Atlantic Division teams at 1-1.<\/p>\n

But the Canadiens have no intention of backing down.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid we look intimidated? I don\u2019t think so,\u201d Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis<\/a> said Thursday as the series shifted to Montreal. \u201cIf they want to play that way, we\u2019re able to play that way. We\u2019re equipped for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Cooper might see the Lightning as the bad guys, defenceman Arber Xhekaj<\/a> says the Canadiens can get just as nasty.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they want to think that, it\u2019s OK,\u201d Xhekaj said. \u201cWe\u2019re here, we\u2019re ready for whatever they have for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe they\u2019re frustrated and trying to throw us off our game,\u201d he added. \u201cWe have big bodies, we have guys who like to play a rough role.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Canadiens are the youngest team in the NHL playoffs, and their top players are all the smaller side. But they aren\u2019t backing down from the Lightning, who are on average four years older and three pounds heavier.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they get into it, we feed into that stuff, we like that stuff,\u201d said Canadiens defenceman Kaiden Guhle<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019re young guys and we\u2019re not scared to get into the physical stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re OK with it,\u201d Xhekaj added. \u201cWe love it. We laugh about it after the game. It\u2019s a brotherhood thing to stick together out there, we don\u2019t mind the rough stuff at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Xhekaj is tied for the Canadiens lead with nine hits despite logging the second-fewest minutes on the team through two games. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great, it\u2019s right into my game, that\u2019s the type of game I like to play\u201d said Xhekaj. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely brought out a good side to my game.\u201d<\/p>\n

CANADIENS LOOKING TO BOUNCE BACK<\/p>\n

After playing even through the first five and a half periods of the series, the Canadiens faltered after Nikita Kucherov<\/a> tied the game at 2-2 in the third period. In overtime, Montreal failed to register a shot on goal before Tampa\u2019s J.J. Moser<\/a> won it 12:48 into the extra frame.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe lost our way,\u201d said St. Louis. \u2018We weren\u2019t giving them much until 10 minutes left in the third and overtime. We controlled a lot of that game.”<\/p>\n

Montreal\u2019s Cole Caufield<\/a>, who had 51 goals in the regular season, has yet to score in the playoffs. The team\u2019s top line of Caufield, Nick Suzuki<\/a>, and Juraj Slafkovsky has yet to score at even strength in the series.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we expect more of ourselves,\u201d Caufield said. \u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re going to do. We\u2019re going to build off the energy of playing here. It\u2019s back to 0-0 and keeping that same mentality going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

St. Louis, now a coach, used to be the player that opponents keyed on defensively and says mentality is a big part of breaking through it.<\/p>\n

\u201c(It can get frustrating) if you let it,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you embark in it, if you let your brain convince you, your thoughts become your actions. You need to be strong mentally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canadiens Kirby Dach<\/a> forward came under fan criticism for failing to cover Moser on the Lightning\u2019s Game 2-winning goal and his Instagram is no longer active. St. Louis says he wishes his players didn\u2019t have social media, especially in the Montreal market.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need all hands on deck, fans included,\u201d said St. Louis of the criticism towards Dach. \u201cWe\u2019re not perfect. A guy\u2019s going to make a mistake but I can tell you, we have good intentions out there. I would say to stick together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sold-out Bell Centre is bound to be wild on Friday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should feed off the energy,\u201d St. Louis said. \u201cWe know the fans are behind us and we love the support. Looking forward to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caufield says he can already feel the energy ahead of Montreal\u2019s home debut of these playoffs<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t get tired, it\u2019s crazy. It\u2019s like there\u2019s another body out there,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a pretty special place to play and they can swing the momentum in a game.\u201d<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 23, 2026.<\/p>\n

Jared Book, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BROSSARD \u2014 Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said that his team is OK playing the role…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-626386","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\/626386","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=626386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}