TAMPA, Fla. — When the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Montreal Canadiens in the 2021 Stanley Cup Final to win their second straight title, they did so on a Ross Colton goal at 13:27 of the second period to take a 1-0 lead in Game 5 at what was then called Amalie Arena.

And that was the final score. A playoff-hardened, veteran team did what was necessary to manage that lead and get the game to the finish line.

The Lightning have not won another Stanley Cup since. What they have done, perhaps better than any other winning franchise in the salary cap era, is maintain a competitive window, so that five years later, they remain serious contenders. So serious, in fact, that our Dom Luszczyszyn’s model considers the Lightning as the favourite at this late stage of the season.

Julien BriseBois was the Lightning general manager in 2021 and is still the general manager today. Ditto Jon Cooper as head coach. Ditto Nikita Kucherov and Victor Hedman and Brayden Point and others at the head of the leadership group among players.

The Lightning hosted the Canadiens Tuesday night at what is now called Benchmark International Arena in a 4-1 Montreal win. They had seven players in the lineup who were also in the lineup when they last lifted the Cup on July 7, 2021. The Canadiens had six players in the lineup who watched them do that.

Though that may seem similar, it’s not, really.

While the Lightning have been defined by stability and adaptability and consistency over that five-year period, the Canadiens have been defined by the opposite. They sank to the bottom and entered a rebuild in the hopes of getting back to a position where they could challenge the Lightning, the gold standard in their division and, in some ways, the league over that stretch.

The Canadiens took a 2-1 lead at 12:49 of the second period on a goal by one of those six players who watched the Lightning lift the Cup five years ago, Cole Caufield. It was his 47th of the season, demonstrating the extent to which he is nowhere near the same player he was back then. It came off an incredible setup from Juraj Slafkovský, who was the Canadiens’ reward for dropping to the bottom of the standings one year after reaching that Stanley Cup Final.

Here the Canadiens were, battling the Lightning to tighten up the top of the Atlantic Division standings. They held a 2-1 lead for nearly half the game and maintained it for longer than the Lightning did in that Cup-clinching game five years ago before capping it off with an empty-net goal from captain Nick Suzuki. He’s another player who watched the Lightning lift that Cup in this building, and has since grown tremendously.

“It feels like a lifetime ago since we were here for the Cup final,” Suzuki said. “We’ve been through a lot, individually and as a team and as an organization. To be where we are right now, it’s pretty miraculous that we’re this good after finishing in last place not that long ago.”

When Caufield gave them that lead midway through the second period, the Canadiens were faced with all the weaknesses that have plagued them at various points this season. Goaltending was one, but Jakub Dobeš shut the door, stopping 17 shots in the third period.

Penalty killing was, and is, another, but the Canadiens killed off all four Lightning power-plays in the game, including after an iffy cross-checking penalty on Suzuki with 4:06 left in regulation.

Defending with the opposing goalie pulled? The Canadiens did that at the same time as killing a penalty, with Mike Matheson, who played 2:48 of the final 4:06 of regulation, scoring into an empty net as Suzuki’s penalty expired. Net front defence also became a point of strength, even without Alexandre Carrier in the lineup.

“I felt like our box outs, that might have been the best box out game we’ve had,” Kaiden Guhle said. “They didn’t get many second whacks at it.”

Finally, there was the ability to defend a lead. That issue dates back to a game in Washington early last season that had coach Martin St. Louis characterizing his team’s effort as “puking all over ourselves.” But the Canadiens, who were bombarded with all those forms of their kryptonite over the final half of this game, passed the test.

“This is a team that’s had a lot of success,” St. Louis said. “I feel like when I first took the job, I looked at that team, their path, how they did it, it’s something that we were trying to get to, and I feel over the last few years, we’ve gotten closer to some of these teams. When you do that, there’s a bigger responsibility now. It’s to not get satisfied with it just because you win. It’s sticking to that process that we’re trying to bring each and every day, and you need that process against teams like that. Because you can do everything right against a team like that and still lose the game. So I’m just proud of the intentions we had today.”

In other words, the Canadiens did not puke all over themselves. They managed a lead, they got saves, they killed penalties and they defended when it mattered.

“We’re not really worried about the wild card,” Suzuki said. “We’re fighting for first place.”

So are the Lightning, but that is their normal. This is not normal for the Canadiens, who are trying to make it that way with the way they’re playing.

The Canadiens have gone from a team that benefited from losses to one that benefits from wins. After being a team that had the No. 1 overall pick, they are now one that rides him in a game Guhle called a “big statement win for us.”

It’s been a ride for the Canadiens, and Suzuki has been along for all of it. And while it wasn’t always fun and involved a lot of losing, the Canadiens have come out the other side of it quickly.

“It’s a fun roller coaster,” he said.

The Canadiens still have work to do. But the fact Suzuki is looking at the winning the division and not just securing the wild card says everything about where the Canadiens are.

And it is an exciting place.