Canadiens vs. Lightning Top Six Minutes: Habs weren’t smart enough to win Game 4

First period

• A bruising shift from Phillip Danault’s line starts things off.
• The Lightning almost get handed the first goal when Mike Matheson is stripped of the puck as he tries to cut through the front of his own net. Jakub Dobeš has to make a toe save on a point-blank chance.
• The Habs are having trouble staying out of their own way in the series, just taking a too many men penalty to give the Lightning a power play.
• The penalty is killed, and the crowd is loud once again.
• Dobeš is a little … amped up tonight it seems. He is overplaying the shots a bit too much.
• Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki try to go in on a two-on-one, but Suzuki is defended well, leaving only a mid-range shot from Caufield for Andrei Vasilevskiy to swallow up.
• The next break is executed by Josh Anderson and Danault, and Max Crozier gets his stick up into Danault’s face. Montreal will get it’s chance on the man advantage.
• Suzuki just misses the net far side from a spot as the bumper.
• The top unit had some great looks, but the passing was a touch off.
• Yanni Gourde shoves Matheson down behind Montreal’s net and thinks he can get possession, but the ref won’t allow that happen. A brief five-on-three upcoming.
• The Canadiens don’t have a goal, but they do now have eight shots on goal.
• During the TV timeout, the top unit has two tablets going to look at their chances. They’re hard at work to figure out how to capitalize on more of those chances.
• Too many giveaways high in the defensive zone for Montreal this period. They’re just not putting in the required effort to get it over the line.
• Montreal had nine shots, but most of those came on the power play. The Habs did not look good at five-on-five, making too many errors on their own half of the ice, with bad breakout passes and needless giveaways. Five high-danger chances for Tampa Bay that period after a total of eight in the opening three games. Everyone will need to be better in the final 40 minutes.

Second period

• Josh Anderson starts the period by hitting Ryan McDonagh into the boards in the offensive zone. Not only did he get called for boarding, but he seems to have had his leg twisted as both players went down together. Montreal is down one of its most effective forwards.
• Montreal kills off the penalty with no shots against.
• The Lightning are blitzing their forecheck, and the Canadiens aren’t moving the puck fast enough to escape it right now.
• The Canadiens are able to execute the breakout with a stretch pass from Kaiden Guhle to Zachary Bolduc. Bolduc powers through a check from Darren Raddysh to get the puck to the net, and an attempted pokecheck from Vasilevskiy sees the puck go up in the air and off the crest of Bolduc into the net. It’s 1-0 Montreal on Bolduc’s first NHL playoff goal.

• Alex Newhook is called for hooking behind Tampa Bay’s net on the shift after the goal. The Lightning will have their chance to get the goal right back.
• The puck just bounces over Suzuki’s stick as he tries to go for a short-handed breakaway.
• Singing “Olé” during a penalty kill? An interesting choice.
• Jakub Dobeš makes a routine save at the end of the penalty, and Jake Guentzel whacks him on the arm with his stick. That will be an instant power play for Montreal.
• The top unit gets the puck to the crease twice, but no farther.
• Suzuki braces for impact along the wall, and turns when he realizes none is coming. He finds Caufield has crept to the top of the crease, and finds him for his first goal of the playoffs.

BIG GOAL COLE CAUFIELD

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— Scott Matla (@scottmatla.bsky.social) April 26, 2026 at 9:39 PM

• Corey Perry falls and gets Jayden Struble’s stick in his face. The play goes offside with Perry in the offensive zone, and then a scrum breaks out. Zemgus Girgensons, Nick Paul, Kirby Dach, and Arber Xhekaj are off to the box.
• Raddysh backhands the puck over the glass with Suzuki bearing down on him, and it’s another Montreal power play.
• Not quite the same intensity from the top unit, which got a little too fancy on its setups again.
• Slafkovský gets buried at centre ice by a launching hit from Crozier and is going slowly to the dressing room.
• On the same play, Matheson was called for slashing, and just like that, momentum turns in Tampa Bay’s favour.
• The power play lasts 27 seconds before Brandon Hagel slashes Evans to prevent a carry out of the zone.
• With the game at four-on-four, the Lightning find their first goal in the final minute. Struble just lost Guentzel enough that the forward could get his stick free and complete a tap-in.
• They almost get a trying goal because Caufield went for an all-or-nothing sweep of the puck that let the Lightning attack the zone with speed, and Dobeš had to dive to keep the puck off the goal line.
• What had been a great period for Montreal was almost spoiled by players letting up in the final 70 or seconds or so. You have the play to the siren, or Tampa Bay will bite you.

Third period

• A very quick penalty gets called on Oliver Kapanen for high-sticking. The replay shows that his stick didn’t actually contact Dominic James.
• Fool me once, shame on you. Fool Matheson twice with the backdoor tap-in from Hagel, and that’s shame on the Canadiens’ defenceman for letting the same play get executed again.
• The 2-0 lead is gone in 2:34 of game time.
• Anderson may have gotten a free high stick because the refs know they got the call wrong on Kapanen. The Habs need to keep their sticks down.
• The best shift from the top line in the series leaves the Lightning hemmed in their zone for well over a minute.
• Now it’s Matheson’s turn to get his stick in a Lightning player’s face. Why can they not keep their sticks below shoulder level in this series? It’s just unacceptable carelessness.
• Carelessness, and now brainless recklessness from Evans as he cross-checks Kucherov in the back while he’s turning and sends him into the boards. Evans is lucky it’s just called a two-minute minor. Zero need for that. Now his team is down two men.
• A huge cheer to rival that from the start of the game as the two penalties are killed.
• With momentum fully in Montreal’s favour, the Lightning toss the puck toward the net, and deflects off Hagel’s face and in the net for his sixth goal of the series. Matheson had Hagel’s stick tied up, but didn’t move him out of the crease so that play couldn’t happen.
• Matheson takes a slash to the hand from Kucherov, and Montreal will have another late power play as they try to tie the game.
• They can’t get a great setup through the Lightning defence even at six-on-five, and the siren sounds on a 3-2 loss.
• That was Montreal’s worst game of the series, and they deserved to lose it. Too many errors, too many dumb plays in general.
• They will now have to wait two days before playing Game 5, and to a man they need to sharper to retake the lead in the series.

EOTP 3 Stars

3) It is becoming a trend

2) It can’t hurt to take a look

1) A valid criticism. It’s a different game with a 2-0 lead to begin the third