{"id":632657,"date":"2026-04-27T20:49:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T20:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/632657\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T20:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T20:49:08","slug":"montreal-canadiens-keeping-pace-with-tampa-bay-lightning-despite-no-even-strength-scoring-from-top-forwards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/632657\/","title":{"rendered":"Montreal Canadiens keeping pace with Tampa Bay Lightning despite no even-strength scoring from top forwards"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONTREAL \u2014 The Montreal Canadiens<\/a> are keeping pace in their first-round playoff series against the Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a> without any even-strength production from the team\u2019s top two forward lines.<\/p>\n

The teams are tied at two wins each heading into Game 5 on Wednesday in Tampa, Fla. The Canadiens are in the series despite not getting a single point in five-on-five play from their top six forward group.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be nice to have more opportunities at 5-on-5,\u201d Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis<\/a> said during a virtual conference call with reporters Monday morning, hours after his team\u2019s 3-2 loss to the Lightning in Game 4 at the Bell Centre. \u201cI think it\u2019s two teams that don\u2019t give up much space. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at the goals scored yesterday (Sunday), we got one breakaway goal on a lucky bounce and we scored a power-play goal. They scored at 4-on-4, on the power play, and they took a shot from the boards that hit the face of a player at the front of the net.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montreal\u2019s top line of Nick Suzuki<\/a>, Cole Caufield<\/a> and Juraj Slafkovsky have combined for 11 points in this series, all on the power play. Seven of those points came in Game 1 of the series. <\/p>\n

The line\u2019s failure to generate at 5-on-5 these playoffs is in sharp contrast to their offensive output during the regular season. Suzuki, Caufield and Slafkovsky combined for 162 points at even-strength, 62 per cent of their overall production for the season. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something we\u2019re looking at,\u201d said St. Louis. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to find the formula. It\u2019s not one player, it\u2019s the group. We\u2019re looking at it systematically. There are moments where they were able to find open space, but there weren\u2019t enough of those moments. We\u2019re going to continue to see what we can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canadiens forward Alexandre Texier<\/a> says the top line is playing good hockey, despite the lean 5-on-5 numbers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to click at some point,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not worried.\u201d<\/p>\n

St. Louis reunited his go-to second line of Alex Newhook<\/a>, Oliver Kapanen<\/a> and Ivan Demidov<\/a> for Game 3, a trio he used 34 times during the regular season with relative success. <\/p>\n

It has been a different story in the playoffs, however. Newhook and Kapanen are scoreless through four games, while Demidov has just a lone assist to his credit, also coming on the power play in Montreal\u2019s Game 1 win. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s something that, us as a line, we definitely want to get a little bit more out of ourselves 5-on-5 in producing and in creating,\u201d said Newhook. \u201cIt\u2019s been a pretty tight-checking series and a lot of production has been coming on the power play from both teams, not that that\u2019s an excuse. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe know there\u2019s some room for us to probably create a little bit more. We\u2019ve got to turn the page and keep moving forward here for the next game.\u201d<\/p>\n

St. Louis reserved comment when asked about the play of his second line on Monday, saying he was still in the process of reviewing game film. <\/p>\n

Newhook, however, is encouraged by the offensive looks his line has generated, including in spurts late in Game 3. While he says it\u2019s much harder to generate offence come playoff time, Newhook has an idea on how he and his rookie linemates can get things going offensively. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think, fundamentally, getting back to basics is important,\u201d he said. \u201cI think we found some success when we were keeping it simple, throwing it behind them and being able to win a battle and create some offensive zone time that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Canadiens\u2019 third-line of Texier, Kirby Dach<\/a> and Zachary Bolduc<\/a> has been on the ice for Montreal\u2019s last four even-strength goals since being put together for the start of Game 3. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe three of us together, we try to be connected in the offensive zone,\u201d said Texier. \u201cBolduc finishes his checks, he\u2019s tough. He\u2019s more and more comfortable in the position. It\u2019s nice to see, during the playoffs, when you need everyone. He\u2019s elevated his game and it\u2019s cool to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

While St. Louis and the Canadiens coaching staff were hard at work breaking down video on Monday, the players were given the day off in an effort to give them a breather from what has been an intense and emotional playoff series. <\/p>\n

\u201cI want the players to try to disconnect from the grind and from the roller-coaster of emotions,\u201d said St. Louis. \u201cIt\u2019s about coming back with purpose tomorrow (Tuesday). We\u2019re going to watch the game and find an angle to address the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew it was going to be a long series. It\u2019s about staying on task, not getting caught up in the roller-coaster of emotions and staying even-keeled.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newhook called the chance for a break a \u201creset.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we remain very confident in our group. I don\u2019t think anyone thought it was going to be a quick series. They\u2019re a good team over there as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve played some good hockey here in the series. I think we know what we are capable of when we\u2019re going and when we\u2019re playing our game.\u201d<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 27, 2026.<\/p>\n

Jordan Stoopler, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTREAL \u2014 The Montreal Canadiens are keeping pace in their first-round playoff series against the Tampa Bay Lightning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338,82],"class_list":["post-632657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632657","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=632657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}