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Feb 9, 2025; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Montreal Canadiens goalie Sam Montembeault (35) stops Tampa Bay Lightning forward Zemgus Girgensons (28) during the third period at the Bell Centre. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Despite the match-ups not being entirely set as the Western Conference is coming down to their final game for seedings, the NHL has released the dates<\/a> (but not all of the times) for the opening games of the first-round playoff series. <\/p>\n The 2026 #StanleyCup Playoffs begin Saturday!<\/p>\n The one guarantee this year: There will be a new champion. <\/p>\n Tune in on \/ESPN, \/NHL_On_TNT, \/Sportsnet and \/TVASports. Full schedule to be announced after all First Round matchups are set later tonight.<\/p>\n Details: www.nhl.com<\/p>\n [image or embed]<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 NHL Public Relations (Bot) (@notprnhl.bsky.social<\/a>) April 16, 2026 at 5:16 PM<\/a><\/p>\n As expected, with Benchmark International Arena booked on Saturday, the Tampa Bay Lightning will open their first round series against the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday, April 19. While the time has yet to be determined officially, the rumor mill has the Lightning dropping the puck at 5:30 PM EST. <\/p>\n The Lightning will certainly enjoy the extra day of rest considering how banged up they were at the end of the season. Another benefit for the NHL is that, should the rest of the series play out as normal (i.e. the teams playing every other day) it sets up a Saturday night game in Montreal for Game Four. That game will undoubtedly be in prime time and carried all across Canada on national team. <\/p>\n Pittsburgh and Philadelphia will get that honor this weekend (and also go against the first night of WrestleMania \u2013 also being carried on ESPN\u2019s streaming service). That\u2019s the highlight of the first day of action that will also feature Ottawa vs. Carolina and Minnesota vs. Dallas \u2013 the marquee match-up of the Western Conference. <\/p>\n Sunday will also feature four games with Buffalo vs. Boston, Utah vs. Vegas, and TBD vs. Colorado joining the Lightning and Canadiens. The 2 vs. 3 match-up in the Pacific Division will take place on Monday. <\/p>\n So, sit back, get your playoff snacks (and heartburn medication) and get ready for a lot of hockey this weekend. What else are we going to do?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb 9, 2025; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; Montreal Canadiens goalie Sam Montembeault (35) stops Tampa Bay Lightning forward Zemgus…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-235079","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-tampa","9":"tag-tampa-headlines","10":"tag-tampa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}