{"id":556383,"date":"2026-04-20T00:02:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T00:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/556383\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T00:02:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T00:02:15","slug":"nuts-bolts-playoff-hockey-is-back-in-tampa-bay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/556383\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuts & Bolts: Playoff hockey is back in Tampa Bay"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everything you need to know ahead of the Lightning’s matchup against the Montreal Canadiens in Game 1 on Sunday:<\/p>\n

When: Sunday, April 19 – 5:45 p.m. ET
Where:\u00a0Benchmark International Arena – Tampa, FL.
TV Coverage:\u00a0The Spot – Tampa Bay 66 (check local listings)
Stream:\u00a0TampaBayLightning<\/a>.com\/StreamNow<\/a>
Radio coverage:\u00a0102.5 MHz-FM<\/a>,\u00a0Lightning Radio 24\/7<\/a><\/p>\n

Lines from Friday’s practice (subject to change)
Forwards
Gage\u00a0Goncalves – Brayden Point\u00a0– Nikita Kucherov
Brandon Hagel – Anthony Cirelli – Jake Guentzel
Zemgus Girgensons – Yanni Gourde –\u00a0Nick Paul
Corey Perry – Oliver Bjorkstrand – Scott Sabourin<\/p>\n

Defensemen
JJ Moser – Darren Raddysh
Ryan McDonagh – Erik Cernak
Charle-Edouard D’Astous\u00a0 – Emil Lilleberg<\/p>\n

Goaltenders
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Jonas Johansson<\/p>\n

Sunday’s Matchup
The 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs open for Tampa Bay on Sunday at home with a Game 1 matchup against Atlantic Division opponent Montreal…The Lightning went 2-2-0 against the Canadiens in the 2025-26 regular season, winning 6-1 on Dec. 9 and 5-4 in a shotoout on Dec. 28 before falling 4-1 in March and 2-1 in April…Tampa Bay is 12-7 all-time against Montreal in the playoffs, including a 7-3 record on home ice…The Lightning were led offensively in the 2025-26 regular season against the Canadiens by Nikita Kucherov\u2019s 3-2\u20145 in four games…Kucherov is the franchise\u2019s career playoff scoring leader versus the Canadiens with 10-3\u201413 in 13 games, with Victor Hedman the next active Bolt with 3-5\u20148 in 15 games…Andrei Vasilevskiy is 4-1-0 with a .934 save percentage across five career playoff starts against the Canadiens, all of which came in the 2021 Stanley Cup Final…Tampa Bay is 24-7-3 in regular season games against Montreal over the past 10 seasons.<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay Sports Item of the Game
2026 Authentic Pro Locker Room Playoff Collection
Suit up like your favorite player this year for the 2026 Playoffs! Grab your Authentic Pro Locker Room gear now, available in store at Benchmark International Arena and online at TampaBaySports.com,<\/a> while supplies last.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Road Ahead (\\if necessary*)<\/p>\n

Game 2: Lightning vs. Canadiens –\u00a0Tuesday, April 21
\nGame 3: Lightning at\u00a0Canadiens –\u00a0Friday, April 24
\nGame 4: Lightning at\u00a0Canadiens –\u00a0Sunday, April 26
\nGame 5: Lightning vs. Canadiens – Wednesday, April 29*
\nGame 6: Lightning at Canadiens – Friday, May 1*
\nGame 7: Lightning vs. Canadiens – Sunday, May 3*<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Everything you need to know ahead of the Lightning’s matchup against the Montreal Canadiens in Game 1 on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5105],"tags":[5,189,4,540,92,5168,5167],"class_list":{"0":"post-556383","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-lightning","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-lightning","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-tampa-bay","12":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning","13":"tag-tampabay","14":"tag-tampabaylightning"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116434105162832526","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556383","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=556383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}