{"id":610281,"date":"2026-04-17T13:35:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T13:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/610281\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T13:35:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T13:35:07","slug":"habs-to-open-playoff-series-in-tampa-as-full-canadiens-lightning-schedule-released","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/610281\/","title":{"rendered":"Habs to open playoff series in Tampa as full Canadiens\u2013Lightning schedule released"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Fans of the\u00a0Montreal Canadiens\u00a0now have a clear picture of what lies ahead, as the\u00a0National Hockey League\u00a0(NHL) has unveiled the full schedule for the team\u2019s first-round playoff matchup against the\u00a0Tampa Bay Lightning.<\/p>\n<p>The series opens Sunday evening in Tampa, with Game 1 set for 5:45 p.m. at\u00a0Amalie Arena. Game 2 will follow at the same venue on Tuesday, April 21 at 7 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>After a two-day break, the series heads to Montreal. Game 3 is scheduled for Friday, April 24, and Game 4 on Sunday, April 26, both at 7 p.m. at the\u00a0Bell Centre.<\/p>\n<p>If the series extends, Game 5 would be played Wednesday, April 29 back in Tampa, followed by a potential Game 6 in Montreal on Friday, May 1. Start times for those games have yet to be announced. A decisive Game 7, if needed, is set for Sunday, May 3 in Tampa, with the time still to be confirmed.<\/p>\n<p>This marks the first playoff meeting between the Canadiens and Lightning since the\u00a02021 Stanley Cup Final, when Tampa Bay captured the title in five games.<\/p>\n<p>Both Atlantic Division teams enter the series evenly matched in the standings, each finishing the regular season with 106 points. Tampa Bay secured home-ice advantage thanks to a higher number of regulation wins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fans of the\u00a0Montreal Canadiens\u00a0now have a clear picture of what lies ahead, as the\u00a0National Hockey League\u00a0(NHL) has unveiled&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":610282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-610281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/610282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}