![\"Tampa](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776711983_935_image.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nTAMPA, Fla. \u2014 \u2014 Behind a loud, energetic, sellout crowd chanting \u201cLet\u2019s Go Bolts!\u201d from Thunder Alley into the arena, the Tampa Bay Lightning should have a clear home-ice advantage.<\/p>\n
Not in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
A 4-3 overtime loss to the Montreal Canadiens in Game 1 on Sunday was the Lightning\u2019s 10th loss in 11 games at home in the postseason, going back to Games 4 and 6 in the 2022 Stanley Cup Final against Colorado.<\/p>\n
They can\u2019t afford to fall behind 2-0 in the best-of-seven, opening-round series. Game 2 is Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
The Lightning have been knocked out of the playoffs in the first round three straight years since the Avalanche prevented them from a three-peat four years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe in this group here. It\u2019s a different team every year,\u201d forward Anthony Cirelli said Monday. \u201cThat\u2019s not in our mind at all. We have to go win a hockey game. That\u2019s what it comes down to. Our energy level has to be up, our emotion has to be up. We have to be ready to go from the first 60-plus and have the urgency to win the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Juraj Slafkovsky scored three power-play goals for the Canadiens in the opener. Lightning coach Jon Cooper wasn\u2019t happy with his team\u2019s penalty-killing unit and the players who put them in position to be short-handed. He called the penalties \u201cstupidity.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh (27) skates off after Montr\u00e9al Canadiens left wing Juraj Slafkovsk\u00fd scored during overtime in Game 1 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup first-round playoff series, Sunday, April 19, 2026, in Tampa, Fla. Credit: AP\/Chris O’Meara<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay was the most penalized team in the NHL in the regular season with 425. The Lightning had 14 penalty minutes and the Canadiens converted three times in five opportunities with the man advantage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe big one is staying out of the penalty box,\u201d Cirelli said. \u201cOur PK has to be better. They have a really good power play. We have to limit our penalties.\u201d<\/p>\n
And, they\u2019ve got to play better on special teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re going to kill penalties off at 50%, then you\u2019re probably not going to last very long,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cBut if you kill penalties off at 50% and you only give up two (penalties), well, maybe you can survive.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Montr\u00e9al](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776711984_870_image.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Montr\u00e9al Canadiens goaltender Jakub Dobes (75) celebrates with defenseman Jayden Struble (47) after Juraj Slafkovsk\u00fd scored during overtime in Game 1 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup first-round playoff series, Sunday, April 19, 2026, in Tampa, Fla. Credit: AP\/Chris O’Meara<\/p>\n
The good news for the Lightning is an 8-5 all-time record in playoff series that begin with a home loss. They are 13-8 in Game 2s at home.<\/p>\n
The Lightning will need Andrei Vasilevskiy to play more like the dominant goaltender they\u2019re used to having. He wasn\u2019t sharp against the Canadiens in the opener, allowing four goals on 19 shots.<\/p>\n
In a series that features potential Hall of Famers like Vasilevskiy and Nikita Kucherov, Montreal\u2019s Slafkovsky was the difference maker in Game 1.<\/p>\n
Slafkovsky, who had four goals and four assists in six games for Slovakia in the Milan Cortina Olympics, has built off that success. After finishing with 30 goals in the regular season, he became the third-youngest Canadiens player to record a hat trick in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe evolution of Slaf, I think, is almost the same as the evolution of our team,\u201d Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. \u201cWe know what he\u2019s capable of bringing Slaf, and that\u2019s what he did (Sunday). He played to his identity. Not just the goals \u2014 he was physical, he won battles. It was a big game for him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 \u2014 Behind a loud, energetic, sellout crowd chanting \u201cLet\u2019s Go Bolts!\u201d from Thunder Alley into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5103],"tags":[265,5,264,21,5147,4,92,1105],"class_list":{"0":"post-556842","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","14":"tag-tampa-bay-lightning","15":"tag-wires-bot"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116438603361370530","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556842","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=556842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}