{"id":624568,"date":"2026-04-24T02:03:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T02:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/624568\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T02:03:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T02:03:07","slug":"perry-embracing-role-of-villain-for-lightning-entering-game-3-at-canadiens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/624568\/","title":{"rendered":"Perry embracing role of villain for Lightning entering Game 3 at Canadiens"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONTREAL — Want to make Corey Perry<\/a>\u00a0smile?<\/p>\n

Boo him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Loudly. Lustily. With passion. Like you mean it.<\/p>\n

Just like the capacity crowd of 21,105 at raucous Bell Centre will be doing, in full collective throats, for Game 3 of the Eastern Conference First Round between Perry\u2019s Tampa Bay Lightning and the host Montreal Canadiens on Friday (7 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, TNT, truTV, HBO MAX, The Spot). \u00a0<\/p>\n

He can\u2019t wait.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In fact, standing in the visitors dressing room after Lightning practice Thursday, just the thought of the cold, harsh reception he\u2019ll receive had him breaking into his trademark mischievous smirk.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, when that happens, you\u2019re doing something right,\u201d the 40-year-old forward said. \u201cIf the fans see you have the puck and start booing, you\u2019re doing something right. So, you know, you embrace it, you have fun with it, and it gives you a little fuel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Truth be told, it drives him.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, it\u2019s fun when you go into another building and they all know who you are,\u201d Perry said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s not just me. There\u2019s a lot of guys in this room that I\u2019m sure have been booed many times. It just adds fuel for you. And it\u2019s exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perry has a point in that he\u2019ll have company in being despised. In this version of the Lightning, he\u2019s not alone in being loathed by opposing supporters. As such, there will be plenty of jeers to go around.<\/p>\n

After the Lightning won Game 2 by a 3-2 score<\/a> on J.J. Moser<\/a>\u2019s overtime winner Tuesday to even the series at 1-1, coach Jon Cooper told reporters that \u201csomebody\u2019s got to be the villain, I guess. We\u2019re OK with it.\u201d He was referring, in part, to Tampa Bay\u2019s rambunctious, in-your-face style, one that resulted in the Lightning leading the NHL in penalties (425) during the regular season.<\/p>\n

For their part, the Lightning players, to use Perry\u2019s word, \u201cembrace\u201d their image as bad boys. And, of course, it starts with Perry, who was seen yelling at a number of Canadiens players while in the penalty box after taking a double minor for roughing in the first period of Game 2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTREAL — Want to make Corey Perry\u00a0smile? Boo him.\u00a0 Loudly. Lustily. With passion. Like you mean it. Just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-624568","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624568","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=624568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}