2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs – Eastern Conference QFs
Game 7: Montreal Canadiens (A3) @ Tampa Bay Lightning (A2)
Series tied 3-3
Start time: **6:00 PM EDT / 3:00 PM PDT** In Canada: CBC, Sportsnet (English), TVA Sports (French) In the United States: TNT, truTV In the Lightning region: The Spot Streaming: Sportsnet+
The official stats say that the Tampa Bay Lightning had a 38-26 advantage in scoring chances at five-on-five and a 22-7 edge in high-danger chances in Game 6, but ...
Go Rays!
The San Francisco Giants are set to face the Tampa Bay Rays this afternoon, and the hope is that they can start to turn around a miserable road trip, though they’re fast running out of time. San Francisco has lost the first four games of the six-game swing, and that underscores how bad it’s been: […]
Are you ready?
We said, Arrrrrrrreeeeeee you reeeeeeaddddddddyyyyyy?
Game 7 is here! Well, almost here. We still have to wait 24 hours for the Lightning and Canadiens to engage in their winner-take-all battle. A few years ago, the Lightning engaged in a Game 7 against the New York Islanders in the Eastern Conference Finals. Prior to that game we ranked their previous Game 7s based on a completely arbitrary, poorly-thought-out system. Really, it is what we do best.
Since the publ...
It may have taken some time to get his sea legs back, but Shane McClanahan pitched with a level of conviction we haven’t seen since before the injuries. As a result, he turned in his best outing of the season and set the table for the Rays second shutout in their last three games. His […]
Make absolutely no mistakes, Andrei Vasilevskiy was the first, second, third, fourth, and sixth star tonight. We’ll give Gage Goncalves the fifth star for his overtime, game-winning goal, but without the absolute stellar play of the Lightning netminder, this series is over. Vasilevskiy picked up his first shutout of the playoffs as he stopped 30 shots, including a brilliant two-save sequence on Ivan Demidov in the second period. He needed to make every last one of those stops as the Lightning ...
First period
Two early icings by the Lightning and they’re already diving trying to draw a call on the race to the puck. I expect that to be a theme of this game.
A very nice cycling shift for the usual top line of Juraj Slafkovskš, Nick Suzuki, and Cole Caufield to create a scoring chance.
Darren Raddysh wins up a slapshot that hits Jakub Dobeš in the mask, but it falls right into his pads where he can freeze it.
Dobeš gives the puck away behind the net, but Yanni Gourde...
Go Rays!
The San Francisco Giants head to Florida today to begin a three-game road series against the Tampa Bay Rays. Taking the mound for the Giants will be left-hander Robbie Ray, who enters today’s game with a 2.70 ERA, 4.23 FIP, with 35 strikeouts to 14 walks in 33.1 innings pitched. His last start was in […]
2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs – Eastern Conference QFs
Game 6: Montreal Canadiens (A3) vs. Tampa Bay Lightning (A2)
MTL leads 3-2
Start time: 7:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM PDT In Canada: CBC, Sportsnet (English), TVA Sports (French) In the United States: ESPN2 In the Lightning region: The Spot Streaming: Sportsnet+
Five games have been played in this Eastern Conference Quarter-final, five games have been decided by one goal. Some of the most potent offensive stars on both sides h...
The Complex Leagues in Arizona and Florida begin this weekend. Below are four Rays prospects to follow when their season kicks off. It’s rare for a team to get multiple early standouts from a single class – let alone four – but each of these players did enough in the Dominican Summer League to earn […]
Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Dan Muse has been named a finalist for the Jack Adams Award. Muse was named one of the three finalists for the award, which is the NHL’s annual “Coach of the Year” award, alongside Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper and Buffalo Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff. The Penguins were […]
Coming off back to back losing seasons, Baseball’s intellgentsia and proprietary projection systems had it out for the Tampa Bay Rays this past winter. MLB.com ranked them 22nd before a pitch was even thrown and a pair of experts didn’t predict them to be competitve in the Wild Card race. PECOTA projected 81 or 82 […]
The trade between the Miami Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays in November 2022 didn’t make a lot of headlines. Part of that is because people – including those who live in Florida – don’t pay all that much attention to the two Florida teams. More importantly, the trade didn’t involve any headline talent. In exchange […]
The Toronto Maple Leafs , by all accounts, seem to have settled on their new hockey operations team. However, according to insider Elliotte Friedman on the 32 Thoughts podcast, MLSE initially had its sights set much higher. James Mirtle in The Athletic had a line about Toronto being turned down to speak to a current general manager. I believe that was Julien BriseBois of the Tampa Bay Lightning. That's who I think they asked permission to speak to, and they were rejected. But of co...
Game Six: Tampa Bay Lightning (2-3) at Montreal Canadiens (3-2)
Time: 7:00 PM EST
Location: Centre Bell, Montreal (Saw an excellent Oasis concert there once)
TV/Stream/Radio: The Spot, ESPN2, ESPN+, 102.5 FM, Lightning App
Odds: Lightning -115
Know the Opponents: Habs Eye on the Prize
Win or go home. It’s that simple. Actually, if you think about it, it’s win and go home as well. It’s just a matter of the mood on the flight back to Tampa. A victory and the Lightni...
2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs – Eastern Conference QFs
Game 6: Montreal Canadiens (A3) vs. Tampa Bay Lightning (A2)
MTL leads 3-2
Start time: 7:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM PDT In Canada: CBC, Sportsnet (English), TVA Sports (French) In the United States: ESPN2 In the Lightning region: The Spot Streaming: Sportsnet+
When the Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning met in the 2021 Stanley Cup Final, the series didn’t need a Game 6. The Canadiens managed just one win, and the series w...
The Montreal Canadiens pulled off another thrilling victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning Wednesday night, with a 3-2 victory. That is also the margin by which they now lead the tightly-fought first-round series. The set now heads back to the raucous Bell Centre in Montreal for Game 6 tomorrow night and a chance for the Habs to clinch and move on to Round 2. Former NHL head coach, currently TSN Hockey analyst, Bruce Boudreau , gives us his 3 Keys to Victory for the Canadiens to wrap...
April is just about over, which means it’s time for our first GM approval poll of the 2026 regular season. We’ve learned several things through the first month of games. The American League could be an absolute dogpile with just the Yankees and Rays better than one game over .500, while across the league managers’ […]
The Yankees will end the first month of the season with a modest 1.5-game lead on the American League’s best record. Both the Yanks and the Rays—who are right behind them—are off today, so New York already knows that May will begin with them in front by a game and a half in both the […]
Alexandre Texier scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period and Jakub Dobes made 38 saves in the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning at Benchmark International Arena on Wednesday. Brendan Gallagher and Kirby Dach also scored for the Canadiens, who took a 3-2 lead in the series. Dominic James scored his first career playoff goal and Jake Guentzel also tallied for the Lightning.
Dan Vlader stopped 42 shots for his second shutout...
Montreal Canadiens news and notes
Juraj Slafkovský is too nice on the ice and the Tampa Bay Lightning are using that to their advantage. [ Journal de Montreal ]
Given what we’ve seen so far in the Stanley Cup playoffs, should the Canadiens have bought during the trade deadline? [ Journal de Montreal ]
The Canadiens are exploring options for a Game 6 outdoor watch party after safety concerns led to the removal of barricades. [ CBC ]
Veterans will have to help keep emotions...
The Tampa Bay Lightning battled back from one goal deficits twice against the Montreal Canadiens in Game Five of their first round series. Unfortunately, they couldn’t answer Alexandre Texier’s early third-period goal as Jakub Dobes made 17 of his 38 saves in the final frame to preserve a 3-2 Montreal win. The series heads back to Montreal with the Lightning facing elimination on Friday.
The too-long-didn’t-read version of the game is that Montreal scored all of the big momentum goals. Th...
First period
They wanted to have towels for the fans to make Benchmark International Arena like the Bell Centre. You can hear a pin drop moments after the opening puck drop.
Well, that’s exactly what Martin St-Louis was hoping for when he inserted Brendan Gallagher into the lineup: charge at the net and clean up a rebound. It’s Newhook’s rebound after he got onto his own wide shot, leaving an empty cage for the veteran to hit.
Montreal had as many high-danger chan...
2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs – Eastern Conference QFs
Game 5: Montreal Canadiens (A3) @ Tampa Bay Lightning (A2)
Series tied 2-2
Start time: 7:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM PDT In Canada: CBC, Sportsnet (English), TVA Sports (French) In the United States: ESPN2 In the Lightning region: The Spot Streaming: Sportsnet+
The first personnel change has been made by Martin St-Louis in the series. The move is to give Brendan Gallagher his first playoff game of the season at the expense of Oliv...