{"id":555953,"date":"2026-04-19T11:21:22","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T11:21:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/555953\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T11:21:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T11:21:22","slug":"a-haters-guide-to-the-lightning-canadiens-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/555953\/","title":{"rendered":"A hater\u2019s guide to the Lightning-Canadiens series"},"content":{"rendered":"

A nightmare season<\/a> for the Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> compounds itself, with five Atlantic Division teams in this year\u2019s playoffs. From a Leafs vantage point, there\u2019s an appetite to consume some mutually assured destruction. Without further ado, here is the hater\u2019s guide to the Tampa Bay Lightning-Montreal Canadiens first round matchup.Tampa Bay LightningThere have been several odes to Jon Cooper\u2019s tactical mastery this season, but the Lightning<\/a> stumble into the playoffs with a .500 record over their past 10 games. Nikita Kucherov is the best winger in the NHL and it\u2019s admittedly difficult to conjure up reasons to hate on him, or Andrei Vasilevskiy, both of whom should be in awards contention. There\u2019s reason to believe that the Lightning are indeed vulnerable, heading into the spring, along with a 1.019 PDO at 5-on-5 that suggests some inevitable regression may be on the way.Cooper<\/a> has largely been celebrated for managing several injuries to his defence corps, while remaining a leading contender. Victor Hedman is out of the lineup and doesn\u2019t appear to be returning in time for the start of the series. Darren Raddysh exploded for 22 goals and 70 points in 73 games, but how much of that stems from the motivation of a contract year? JJ Moser was a wizard on the defensive end, but his elevated play has yet to be tested in a deep playoff run. You could make an argument that Erik Cernak is the steadiest option for the Lightning, which isn\u2019t an indictment of the player, as he\u2019s a solid, Cup-winning veteran. He shouldn\u2019t be any contender\u2019s No. 1 though.<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay acquired Corey Perry ahead of the NHL Trade Deadline. Perry blindsided John Tavares during the 2021 playoffs and while he is likely heading to the Hall of Fame, he still maintains a reputation as one of the NHL\u2019s dirtiest players. If you\u2019re finding it difficult to root against the Lightning, Perry\u2019s presence alone may be enough.<\/p>\n

Montreal CanadiensMontreal has finally arrived as a leading contender, but it will have to prove its bona fides\u00a0during this year\u2019s postseason. Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Jake Evans and Mike Matheson have all been to the Stanley Cup, but the rest of this group is largely inexperienced. Although the Canadiens were admittedly one of the league\u2019s most thrilling teams<\/a>, they benefited from a strong counterattack and controlled just 48 percent of the expected goals at 5-on-5. Will Ivan Demidov be able to elevate the rest of the Canadiens\u2019 secondary scoring this spring?Noah Dobson broke his thumb during Game 80 of the regular season. Dobson\u2019s injury seriously diminishes the Canadiens\u2019 chances. He\u2019s an elite shot blocker and provided valuable offensive contributions from the blue line. David Reinbacher has been called up from the AHL, but Lane Hutson<\/a> may need to play over 30 minutes a night for the Canadiens to topple the Lightning.<\/p>\n

Jakub Dobes and Jacob Fowler are both among the most promising goaltending prospects in the NHL. Dobes caught fire during the final month of the season, but neither Canadiens\u2019 goaltender are proven options. Samuel Montembeault was one of the NHL\u2019s worst goalies this year, and is a clear No. 3 for Montreal. Will their goaltending be their Achilles\u2019 heel this fall, or will one of Dobes or Fowler rise to the occasion?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s frightening that the Canadiens will rule the day for the next decade. They may have arrived a year ahead of schedule and with Dobson out of the lineup indefinitely, along with Michael Hage electing to stay in the NCAA, the Canadiens\u2019 Stanley Cup ambitions may be a bit premature.<\/p>\n

CHECK OUT OFF THE ROSTER \u2013 NEW EPISODES EVERY WEEKDAY\"\"<\/a>Off The Roster is Toronto sports. Hosted by Cabbie Richards, Lindsay Dunn, and Dan Riccio, this is the go-to morning conversation for everything happening in the 6ix \u2013 Hockey, Baseball, Basketball and everything in between. From breakout performances and questionable trades to throwback jerseys, viral moments, and the stories fans are actually talking about\u2014it\u2019s smart, sharp, and never scripted. Live weekday mornings on the Nation Network YouTube channel<\/a> and available wherever you stream podcasts, the show delivers real opinions, real chemistry, and real Toronto energy. Missed an episode? Catch up anytime. Off The Roster\u2014The new sound of the 6ix.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A nightmare season for the Toronto Maple Leafs compounds itself, with five Atlantic Division teams in this year\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5103],"tags":[265,5,264,21,5147,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-555953","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-montreal-canadiens","8":"tag-canadiens","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-montreal","11":"tag-montreal-canadiens","12":"tag-montrealcanadiens","13":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116431113375832967","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}