Lightning Face St. Louis in Playoff Showdown

0:00The Tampa Bay Lightning kickoff their playoffs facing the Montreal Canadians in a first-round series starting Sunday, with former Lightning legend, Martin St. Louis now coaching the Habs. Both squads racked up 106 points in the regular season, but Tampa snagged home ice with 50 wins to Montreal's 48. St. Louis, whose number 26 hangs in the rafters, brings his Hall of Fame pedigree back to town after leading Tampa to their first Stanley Cup in 2004. St. Louis took over in Montreal back in 2022, and now the Canadians chased their first cups since 1993, having not won a playoffs series since losing to Tampa in the 2021 final. Meanwhile, the Lightning have bowed out in the first round three years straight, falling short of a three-peat, and they're hungry to end those long. Summers. Players on both sides are fired up. With Tampa's vets tired of early exits, despite their nine-year playoff streak tied for the NHL's longest. Montreal grabbed two regulation wins over Tampa this season,

1:03including the last two by a six-to-one combined score, setting up a real test for the Boltz's championship standards. Offensively, Tampa's Nikita Kutcherov littered up with 130 points second in the league, backed by Jake Gwinsel's 88 and Brandon Hagel's 74. Montreal counters with Nick Suzuki's 101 points, Cole Coffield's 51 goals, and Lane Hudson's 78 from the blue line. In net, Andreje Vesilevsky's 2.31 goals, against average faces off against Jakub Dobs's 2.78. Captain Victor Hedman is back in the locker room after his leave, but won't play to start, leaving Tampa to grind without him on the ice for now. This matchup pits history against hunger, and the lightning no beating St. Louis and his crew is step one to contending again. That's your Canada News today update. AI powered and always on.