{"id":256543,"date":"2026-05-03T12:12:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T12:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/256543\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T12:12:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T12:12:16","slug":"state-your-case-canadiens-lightning-game-7-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/256543\/","title":{"rendered":"State Your Case: Canadiens-Lightning Game 7 winner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lightning 3, Canadiens 2 (3OT): That\u2019s right, I said it, triple overtime, because three more periods is not going to be enough to decide this epic game and epic series. I pick Tampa Bay because of the way goalie\u00a0Andrei Vasilevskiy<\/a> played in goal in Game 6. He was amazing, showing the form that made him a back-to-back Stanley Cup winner in 2020 and 2021, and I expect that to continue in Game 7. This game could come to which all-world talent goal-scoring forward gets it done between Nikita Kucherov<\/a> of the Lightning or Cole Caufield<\/a>\u00a0of the Canadiens. But in games like these, it\u2019s usually gritty, gutty players like forwards Nick Paul<\/a> (Lightning) or Brendan Gallagher<\/a> (Canadiens) who play hero. — Bill Price, Editor-in-Chief\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lightning 3, Canadiens 1: Montreal had its chance to win this series and squandered it with an overtime loss in Game 6. It had an aging heavyweight champion on the ropes but couldn\u2019t score the knockout. Now, the battle-hardened vets from the Lightning, before a home crowd, step to the fore. Expect Kucherov, Vasilevskiy, forward Brandon Hagel<\/a>\u00a0and coach Jon Cooper to have their fingers all over this win. — Shawn P. Roarke, senior director of editorial\u00a0<\/p>\n

Canadiens 3, Lightning 2: The Canadiens are due a fortunate bounce, which is why they\u2019re going to win Game 7. In a series this tight, it\u2019s going to take a fortunate break to separate the two teams. Tampa Bay got its share in a 1-0 overtime win in Game 6 and now it\u2019s Montreal\u2019s turn to have the puck bounce its way. Each team has alternated winning games in the series, and I believe the trend continues in Game 7. The Canadiens will win the wildly entertaining series between two excellent teams. — Derek Van Diest, staff writer\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lightning 2, Canadiens 1 (OT): For someone who\u2019s been covering this epic first-round\u00a0matchup, how do you pick between teams that had the same number of points during the regular season (106), have played four overtime games in this series, have each scored 14 goals and are both 2-1 on the road? It might be easier to figure out how to get blood from a stone. I\u2019m going with Tampa Bay because I picked the Lightning before the playoffs to win this series and go on to represent the Eastern Conference in the Stanley Cup Final. That\u2019s the only reason. No scientific research. No analytical explanation. And after watching these young Canadiens, they have shown absolutely no fear of the big moments and could win. For that to happen, it\u2019s time for Caufield, Nick Suzuki<\/a> and Juraj Slafkovsky<\/a>, members of Montreal\u2019s top line who have each yet to score an even-strength goal in the series, to step up. In the end, I\u2019ll go with the Lightning’s Hagel, who has six goals in the series, to score in OT. Whoever wins, thanks to these teams for the epic show.\u00a0— Mike Zeisberger, staff writer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lightning 3, Canadiens 2 (3OT): That\u2019s right, I said it, triple overtime, because three more periods is not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-256543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256543","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=256543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}