2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs – Eastern Conference QFs
Game 5: Montreal Canadiens (A3) @ Tampa Bay Lightning (A2)
Series tied 2-2
Start time: 7:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM PDT
In Canada: CBC, Sportsnet (English), TVA Sports (French)
In the United States: ESPN2
In the Lightning region: The Spot
Streaming: Sportsnet+
The first personnel change has been made by Martin St-Louis in the series. The move is to give Brendan Gallagher his first playoff game of the season at the expense of Oliver Kapanen. The rookie was playing just about eight-and-a-half minutes per night, and the hope is that Gallagher can find his vintage form for at least one shift and bang in a goal to give the team a bit of an offensive boost.
Jon Cooper is once again shuffling his lines, trying to find the best permutation of the 12 forwards used last game. Game 4 was arguably Tampa Bay’s best of the series, so we’ll see if the moves improve the team further or upset the balance that resulted in a win last time out.
Where the Lightning remain most dangerous is on their power plays, where they’re scored four of their 11 goals in this series. The Canadiens were too careless with their sticks in Game 4, giving their opponent extra chances to play with an extra man. Discipline was about not retaliating early in the series when the Lightning tried to bash their way to victory. Now it’s about being mindful enough to not flail sticks around and give Tampa Bay bonus chances to find a goal.
Montreal Canadiens projected lineup
| Left Wing | Centre | Right Wing |
|---|---|---|
| #13 Cole Caufield | #14 Nick Suzuki | #20 Juraj Slafkovský |
| #77 Kirby Dach | #71 Jake Evans | #76 Zachary Bolduc |
| #17 Josh Anderson | #24 Phillip Danault | #11 Brendan Gallagher |
| #85 Alexandre Texier | #15 Alex Newhook | #93 Ivan Demidov |
| Left Defence | Right Defence |
|---|---|
| #21 Kaiden Guhle | #48 Lane Hutson |
| #8 Mike Matheson | #45 Alexandre Carrier |
| #47 Jayden Struble | #72 Arber Xhekaj |
| Starter | Backup |
|---|---|
| #75 Jakub Dobeš | #32 Jacob Fowler |
Injured: Noah Dobson
Scratched: Adam Engström, Oliver Kapanen, Patrik Laine, Samuel Montembeault, Joe Veleno
Tampa Bay Lightning projected lineup
| Left Wing | Centre | Right Wing |
|---|---|---|
| #38 Brandon Hagel | #21 Brayden Point | #86 Nikita Kucherov |
| #37 Yanni Gourde | #71 Anthony Cirelli | #59 Jake Guentzel |
| #93 Gage Goncalves | #17 Dominic James | #22 Oliver Bjorkstand |
| #28 Zemgus Girgensons | #14 Conor Geekie | #10 Corey Perry |
| Left Defence | Right Defence |
|---|---|
| #90 J.J. Moser | #43 Darren Raddysh |
| #27 Ryan McDonagh | #81 Erik Cernak |
| #78 Emil Lilleberg | #24 Max Crozier |
| Starter | Backup |
|---|---|
| #88 Andrei Vasilevskiy | #31 Jonas Johansson |
Injured: Charle-Edouard D’Astous, Victor Hedman, Pontus Holmberg
Ill: Nick Paul
Scratched: Declan Carlile, Brandon Halverson, Jakob Pelletier, Scott Sabourin
2026 Calder Cup Playoffs – North Division SFs
Game 1: Laval Rocket vs. Toronto Marlies
Start time: 7:00 PM EDT / 4:00 PM PDT
In Canada: RDS (French)
Streaming: FloHockey, RDS
At the same time that Montreal is playing, the AHL affiliate in Laval will be contesting its first playoff game of the year. Laval has been idle for 10 days waiting to see which opponent it would face, and the winner of the best-of-three series to claim the fourth seed in the North Division was the Toronto Marlies.
David Reinbacher, Florian Xhekaj, Vinzenz Rohrer, and Owen Beck will be hosting Easton Cowan and the Marlies in Game 1 in Laval, aiming to build upon last year’s run to the conference finals. They don’t have Jacob Fowler to help them out this time around, so we will see what Kaapo Kahkonen can do to help them out in the crease.
