{"id":633342,"date":"2026-04-27T04:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T04:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/633342\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T04:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T04:11:08","slug":"from-tsn-690-three-takeaways-from-game-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/633342\/","title":{"rendered":"From TSN 690 \u2013 Three Takeaways from Game 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here are my three takeaways from Montreal\u2019s 3-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a>. <\/p>\n

1 – The Captain has his best game <\/p>\n

A lot of the conversation at the start of the series centered around how Montreal\u2019s top players were being neutralized. <\/p>\n

Nick Suzuki<\/a> showed up in Game 4 and was the driving force all night. His work on the power play was pure genius, demonstrating why he was one of the most productive power-play players in the league this season. <\/p>\n

He held onto the puck for what felt like an eternity, when most players would have moved it to the goal line, the bumper, or the point. <\/p>\n

Instead, he showed that patience is indeed a virtue, perfectly timing a pass to Cole Caufield<\/a>, who slid from the goal line to the front of the net untouched. <\/p>\n

Beyond setting up the goal, Suzuki was physical, forced a penalty on the forecheck, and contributed in every situation. <\/p>\n

2 – Slafkovsky gets hammered <\/p>\n

Juraj Slafkovsky got lit up at center ice, with Max Crozier<\/a> coming in like a heat-seeking missile and catching the unsuspecting Montreal forward with his head down. <\/p>\n

The hit was clean and the kind of play that can instantly change momentum in a game. <\/p>\n

At that point, Montreal seemed to have complete control, holding its first multi-goal lead of the series with the Bell Centre rocking. <\/p>\n

But the hit gave Tampa Bay life, and things quickly turned in their favour. <\/p>\n

The good news for Montreal: despite heading to the dressing room, Slafkovsk\u00fd returned for the third period. <\/p>\n

It should serve as a reminder to the young budding star that even though he\u2019s one of the biggest players on the ice, he\u2019s still a target, and opponents will take a run if given the chance. <\/p>\n

3 – Hagel is killing the Canadiens <\/p>\n

Brandon Hagel<\/a> has been a Montreal killer in this series, and there are no signs of that slowing down. <\/p>\n

He has been a thorn in their side in every possible way, most notably with his goal scoring. <\/p>\n

Hagel scored two of the Tampa Bay goals tonight, including the game-winner. <\/p>\n

If the Conn Smythe Trophy were handed out today, he\u2019d be the unanimous choice. <\/p>\n

The ever-temperamental Nikita Kucherov<\/a> made a great play to get the puck to the net, where it was deflected in by Hagel for the final dagger, as Jon Cooper mixed and matched his lines all night. <\/p>\n

The Lightning are hard to put away, and the margin for error in this series has been minuscule. We now have a best-of-three.<\/p>\n

Mitch Gallo is co-host of \u2018Campbell vs. Gallo,\u2019 as well as Canadiens pre- and post-game coverage on TSN Radio 690 in Montreal. You can follow him on \u2018X\u2019 at @MitchyGallo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Here are my three takeaways from Montreal\u2019s 3-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. 1 – The Captain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[16159,64,63,306777,152989,143497,575,152990,85,217186],"class_list":{"0":"post-633342","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-brandon-hagel-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8479542","12":"tag-juraj-slafkovsk-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8483515","13":"tag-montreal-canadiens-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-8","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-nick-suzuki-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8480018","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-14"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633342","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=633342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}