The Tampa Bay Lightning are headed back to the playoffs, and this time, they’ve got the kind of first-round matchup worth staying up for.
The Bolts secured the No. 2 seed in the Atlantic Division, holding a 50-25-6 record and 106 points, with one regular season game left on Wednesday night. Win or lose, they’ll face the Montreal Canadiens in the Eastern Conference First Round, the same franchise that watched the Lightning hoist the Cup after a five-game Final back in 2021. That was a fun series, if you’re into winning.
This is the Lightning’s ninth consecutive playoff appearance, a run that says a lot about this organization’s consistency and quite a bit about Jon Cooper’s ability to keep a roster sharp and hungry year after year. Nikita Kucherov is the NHL’s regular season leading scorer, surpassing both Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon. Let that sink in for a moment. The man is operating at a level that makes other teams’ scouts lose sleep, and he’s going to be doing it right here in Tampa when the postseason gets underway.
The playoffs are scheduled to begin April 18, and home ice advantage is going to Tampa Bay heading into the regular-season finale on April 16. With 50 regulation wins compared to Montreal’s 48, the Bolts currently hold the tiebreaker and are set to open the series at Benchmark International Arena for Games 1 and 2, with potential returns home for Games 5 and 7 if necessary. Specific start times will be confirmed once the regular season wraps, so keep an eye on nhl.com/lightning for the latest.
Now, let’s talk about the opponent. The Canadiens had a genuinely strong regular season, and it’s worth acknowledging before the puck drops. Nick Suzuki has an NHL career-high 101 points this season, Cole Caufield reached 50 goals, and rookie Ivan Demidov made his first NHL season look effortless. Montreal went 2-1-1 against Tampa Bay during the regular season, winning the last two meetings. They’re not walking into this series with anything to lose.
What they’re walking into, though, is a Lightning team that went 19-1-1 at one point this season. Cooper’s squad knows exactly what playoff hockey looks and feels like, and Andrei Vasilevskiy has a way of elevating his game when the stakes are at their highest. Add Kucherov alongside Brayden Point and a deep supporting cast, and this team has everything it needs to make a serious run.
The Lightning won four of their last five regular-season games to close the year on a high note. Montreal, meanwhile, dropped two straight to finish things out. When it comes to momentum heading into April hockey, it’s not subtle which team has it.
This is the kind of series that doesn’t feel like a first round. History, star power, and a building that gets incredibly loud when the playoffs arrive.
Don’t have tickets yet? Fix that, by grabbing them here. Watching from home? Clear your late-April and early-May calendar now.
Bolts up. Let’s go, Tampa.
