When the Lightning take the ice for Game 1 of their first-round playoff series against the Canadiens on Sunday in Tampa, they’ll be trying to get a huge monkey off their backs.

They will enter the series, with a Game 1 faceoff of 5:45 p.m. at Benchmark International Arena, having lost seven of their last eight postseason games at home, a big reason why they have failed to advance past the first round the past three years.

Since their third straight trip to the Stanley Cup Final in 2022, the Lightning have gone 1-4-3 at home in the playoffs, a stretch that started with three overtime losses to seal their first-round exit against the Maple Leafs in 2023.

“Some overtime wins would be nice at some point,” said goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, who expressed his frustration after last season’s five-game loss to the Panthers in the opening round. “But we’ll put it behind us. It’s a clean sheet, back to zeros. (The Canadiens are) a really tough opponent, really fast, skilled, one of the hottest teams in the NHL right now. So we’ll just have to outwork them and go from there.”

Any team will have a difficult time putting together a deep playoff run if it can’t win in its own building, as the Lightning well know. Getting home ice for the first round was important to the team, which clinched the advantage in the second-to-last game of the regular season.

In 2024-25, the Lightning went 29-8-4 at home during the regular season and pushed to get home-ice advantage over the Panthers by finishing second in the Atlantic Division. But Tampa Bay dropped Games 1 and 2 at home, putting it in a 2-0 hole, and was eliminated with a Game 5 loss in Tampa.

The Lightning and Panthers were tied 1-1 going into the final minute of the first period of Game 1 last season before Sam Reinhart scored the first of four straight Florida goals with 45 seconds left in the period. The Panthers went on to win 6-2.

Following the series, Vasilevskiy referenced the six goals Tampa Bay allowed in the opening game and said Lightning fans “deserve much better than this.”

“(Home ice) hasn’t been our best friend, but at the same time, did we deserve to win? Did we play the way we probably needed to win?” forward Brandon Hagel said. “Home ice or not, at the end of the day, (it comes down to) if you’re gonna do the right things, and the home ice can only do so much.”

The Lightning again were one of the league’s better home teams this season — their 53 home points ranked eighth — but as they’ve shown the past few postseasons, finding ways to win in the playoffs is an entirely different animal.

“I think the biggest thing for us is being ready for that Game 1,” center Brayden Point said. “I think in the last few years, we’ve let Game 1 slip, and then you’re behind the eight ball already.”

Montreal certainly won’t be intimidated by having to win on the road. Its 56 road points were the most in the Eastern Conference this season and tied Dallas for second most in the NHL. The Canadiens’ 144 goals on the road trailed only the Lightning’s 151.

Montreal already has seen success in Tampa this season, including a 4-1 win in their most recent trip to Benchmark International Arena on March 31. Cole Caufield scored the go-ahead goal with 7:11 left in the second period, and the Canadiens added two empty-net goals late in the third.

On Dec. 28 in Tampa, Montreal rallied from a 4-1 deficit to tie the score with three goals in the final 10:44 of regulation. Juraj Slafkovsky’s goal with four seconds remaining forced overtime before the Lightning prevailed in a shootout.

“The crowd’s incredible,” Hagel said. “It’s nice to have them behind your back. But as a team standpoint, did we probably think we were where we needed to be? No, I think it feels different in here this year. Obviously, the home ice is nice. I’m excited, but we’ve got to kind of put that behind us, because we can’t really follow that suit.”