Sunday’s series opener in Tampa Bay turned into a battle of special teams with multiple power play goals for each side. Juraj Slafkovsky had three of those tallies, the first coming early in overtime to give Montreal the 4-3 victory.
The rest of the first round NHL postseason gets started Sunday and Monday. The HabsWorld writers provided their predictions on the rest of the playoff matches, including the Canadiens-Lightning series.
The Tampa Bay Lightning vs Montreal Canadiens series will probably be one of the most exciting series in the first round. Let’s take a closer look at some of the behind-the-scenes numbers of the series.
While there was a bit of a dip at the end of the season, consistency was a strong point for the Habs in 2025-26. That allowed them to blow past their 2024-25 numbers while allowing several key players to hit significant milestones as well.
Topics in our latest podcast include a discussion of the upcoming series against Tampa Bay, several big individual milestones reached, David Reinbacher’s NHL debut, and more.
Come playoff time, teams need their top players to be their top players. But to get through a series, someone else will also need to step up to make some key contributions. Our writers make their predictions on who might fill that role for the Habs this spring.
Laval finished up the home portion of the 2025-26 regular season schedule last week with a pair of games against the Senators. They managed to get three of four points but the one they left on the table could come back to bite them.
In the regular season finale of the 2025-26 season, the Habs weren’t able to muster up much in Philadelphia. With a chance to give themselves a shot at home ice advantage in the first round, they failed to capitalize, instead falling 4-2.
It was a week of milestones for the Habs as several of their core players all set personal bests or reached totals rarely seen in recent years. On top of that, they managed to pick up three of four wins to give them a shot at home-ice advantage in the first round although they sustained a key injury along the way.
After a tough loss to Columbus on Saturday, the Habs looked to rebound on Sunday against the Islanders. One big minute in the second period gave them a lead they never looked back from in a 4-1 victory.