- Well for anyone worried the Canadiens wouldn’t be up for this game, Brendan Gallagher is sparring with Zemgus Girgensons before the opening puck drop.
First period
- It’s still a surprise how quickly the top line can create chances out of seemingly nothing. They just turned a contested puck at the goal line into two point-blank chances, with Juraj Slafkovský again doing the hardest work.
- The second line hits the ice and puts together something similar.
- All that, and it’s 1-0 for Tampa Bay. Jayden Struble can’t keep up with Brayden Point, and the Lightning forward gains just enough space to fire a far-side shot past Jakub Dobeš’s blocker.
- It was also Struble whose poorly timed pinch led to the first second-period goal last game, so it has been a difficult few days for him.
- Jake Evans get mugged by two players as he tries to carry the puck into the offensive zone. Pontus Holmberg is called.
- The refs took about four seconds too long to blow their whistles after the Lightning had possession, so Gallagher thought the play was still going on and landed a hit. He goes off for roughing, but Max Crozier will go with him.
- The second second-period goal versus the St. Louis Blues was Noah Dobson’s fault. He just missed a pass coming to him at the blue line as the penalty was expiring, and Holmberg scores on the breakaway.
- Cole Caufield picks off a cross-ice pass at the blue line. The difference between the two teams is that the Lightning defencemen immediately retreated and the best Montreal got from it was a two-on-two.
- Now down 2-0, it’s just pure panic from Montreal in its own zone.
- Thanks to the post, it remains a two-goal deficit instead of three.
- Tampa Bay’s defencemen are standing at centre ice when Suzuki’s line comes on. They don’t want to get beat on counters, especially with a two-goal lead.
- They will need to start doing that versus Kapanen’s as well, because it came very close to getting Montreal on the board with about 30 seconds of pressure.
- The better Montreal plays, the more goals get scored against them it seems. Dobeš loses his stick in a net-front scramble as most of his teammates collapse to the middle trying to block the puck. Through that mass of bodies, the puck gets across to Nikita Kucherov unseen by Dobeš, and the three-time Art Ross Trophy-winner has a lot of net to shoot at to score the 3-0 goal.
- The Lightning clamp down a little too hard to see out the period and take a penalty, but that’s a fair trade-off to exit with a three-goal edge.
- If the first period on Sunday was one of Montreal’s best of the season, the one tonight was their most immature. They looked every bit like the youngest team in the NHL, and not the club that has a shot at top spot in the division tonight.
Second period
- Samuel Montembeault is in the net to start the second period. This is more a message to the team than Dobeš I have to imagine. But Montembeault comes in with zero pressure.
- Despite being down by the three, the power play is still guilty of too many passes.
- It’s hard to get a more fitting image of the youth on display in this game than Hutson playing that power-play shift with his skate lace untied.
- The Canadiens get an offensive-zone faceoff to end the power play. St-Louis sees it as an opportunity to start his third line on the attack. Four seconds later, the puck is headed toward Montreal’s zone. A few seconds after that it’s 4-0 as Montembeault gets beaten on the first shot he faces.
- At least the top line is trying. They draw a call. You have to find any positive you can from this game.
- Cole Caufield misses a one-time setup. When he misses another as the second unit comes out, he just turns and skates to the bench. It just wasn’t happening.
- Montreal isn’t giving up despite the score, and I have to give them credit for that. The Lightning just want to clamp this result down and can’t touch the puck right now.
- Arber Xhekaj goes to the box to send the Lightning to the power play for the first time.
- Jake Evans intercepts the puck in the offensive zone and gets a quick shot. We need to see more of that at five-on-five from him.
- Interesting. No diamond formation in this game. Both Matheson and Dobson are playing on opposite sides of the crease.
- Very little generated from Tampa Bay, and hopefully that box formation is here to stay.
- With the penalty over, Dobson has an open side of the ice to himself as he walks in to the net and … passes it to no one on the opposite side.
- Slafkovský sets up what looked like a sure goal for Caufield in the slot after stripping Jonas Johansson behind the net, but Darren Raddysh bothers Caufield enough to prevent him from pushing it in.
- Demidov draws a penalty as the second line again plays hard around the Tampa Bay net.
- They finally get a puck to go in the net. Suzuki’s initial shot was denied, but it’s Oliver Kapanen who scores, his ninth of the season.
Suzuki looks like he scores on the PP, Kapanen cleans it up Habs trailing 4-1
— Scott Matla (@scottmatla.bsky.social) December 9, 2025 at 9:38 PM
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- Shots were 16-4 for Montreal. Score effects were part of it, but Tampa Bay wasn’t trying to get that heavily outplayed, and the two penalties are evidence of that.
- That was a much more mature period from the Canadiens. I think they all know the scoreline is mostly of their own doing, so it’s hard to get too down about that.
Third period
- The goal is to win this period and set themselves up for the short road trip coming up, but no one will complain if they outscore the Lightning by four.
- Well they’ll need five to do that now as the puck gets fired from a sharp angle off the mask of Montembeault and under the crossbar.
- Now the Lightning are able to play the game they want. That fifth goal took all the life out of the Canadiens.
- Bolduc gets open for a mini breakaway, leaves the puck behind and just fires a stickblade-ful of air at Johansson. I think the players wish they could be like the fans and just leave this game early.
- In case the shift wasn’t embarrassing enough, Bolduc ends it with a tripping penalty.
- Xhekaj goes to the box for high-sticking. Tampa Bay puts a 6 on the board.
- Montembeault still isn’t picking up where shots are coming from. He just waves at one that clanked off the post.
- Anderson and Scott Sabourin drop the gloves and wrestle each other to the ice. The fans who stuck around had one last thing to entertain them.
- Dobson throws a hit after the whistle with less than a minute to play. He needs that intensity at the start of the game next time.
- Montreal drops to 7-8-1 on home ice with that 6-1 loss. They’ve been a lot better on the road, and we can only hope they don’t get in their own way in Pittsburgh on Thursday.
EOTP 3 Stars
3) The fine gets rescinded if they take two on their next shift
2) It takes effort to have a goal differential 11 higher than your defence partner
1) Well that’s just flat-out mean
