Canadiens open playoffs against Lightning in 2021 Cup Final rematch
The Montreal Canadiens open their 2026 Stanley Cup playoff campaign Sunday, April 19, at 5:45 p.m. ET in Tampa, drawing the Lightning in a first-round series that doubles as a rematch of the 2021 Stanley Cup Final. Tampa Bay won that series in five games and enters this one with home-ice advantage and history on its side.
For a Montreal team still shaking off a rebuilding label, the matchup is a measuring stick — against a franchise that has been to four Cup Finals since the Canadiens last won a playoff round.
How the teams got here
Montreal finished third in the Atlantic Division with a 48-24-10 record, the club's strongest regular season since 2014-15. A young core anchored by Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovský and Lane Hutson carried the offence, while Samuel Montembeault and a healthier blue line stabilized the defence down the stretch.
Tampa Bay clinched the second Atlantic seed behind another high-scoring campaign from Nikita Kucherov and a vintage playoff-ready performance from Andrei Vasilevskiy. The Lightning carry a 3-1 edge in all-time playoff series against Montreal, including last decade's Cup Final.
The schedule
The series opens at Amalie Arena with Game 2 on Tuesday, April 21, also in Tampa. The action shifts to the Bell Centre for Game 3 on Friday, April 24 and Game 4 on Sunday, April 26, per the NHL's first-round schedule. Games 5 through 7, if needed, will follow the standard 2-2-1-1-1 pattern.
History on the ice
Montreal's only playoff series win over Tampa came in the 2014 Conference Quarterfinals, when the Canadiens swept the Lightning. The 2021 Cup Final remains the defining recent meeting: Tampa took the series 4-1, capping a second straight championship.
"It's a great test for our group," head coach Martin St. Louis told TSN. "They've been where we want to go."
St. Louis knows the room on both sides. He played for the Lightning for more than a decade before transitioning into coaching, and he has now guided Montreal back to the post-season in his fourth season behind the bench.
Keys to the series
Goaltending looms large. Vasilevskiy has been the difference in every Lightning playoff run since 2019, and Montembeault will need to match his workload without matching his résumé. The Canadiens' power play, among the league's top units in the second half, will be tested by a Tampa penalty kill that tightened after the trade deadline.
Special-teams duels aside, the series may hinge on the middle of the ice. Suzuki against Anthony Cirelli is the matchup to watch, and whichever centre wins more of those 200-foot battles likely wins the series.
What's next
Sunday's puck drop caps an 82-game regular season that re-introduced the Canadiens to the playoff stage after a three-year absence. For regional coverage and pre-game notes, see our Quebec section. A Montreal win in Tampa on Sunday or Tuesday would flip home-ice advantage and reframe a series in which the Lightning remain the bookmakers' favourite.
