TAMPA: The Montréal Canadiens celebrate after defeating the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 in Game 7 of the First Round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Amalie Arena on May 03, 2026 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Mike Carlson/Getty Images)
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Less than 20 minutes after shaking hands with Martin St. Louis, Jon Cooper took his seat in the postgame media room Sunday evening and spoke about his Tampa Bay Lightning’s effort in a Game 7 that carved out a spot in the NHL record book. It was a bit of playoff history that went against his club.
“Sometimes you win the game and not the score,” he said. “It’s Game 7, and there’s no moral victory in that.”
Such was the feeling following a 2-1 series-clinching loss to Montreal at Benchmark International Arena. The setback marked the Bolts’ fourth straight first-round exit. This one was different than the previous three, two against Florida and one at the hands of Toronto.
Only 29 goals were scored in seven one-goal games – the third such time in NHL annals seven games were decided by one goal – with the Canadiens having the slightest edge, 16-15. Four of the games went to overtime. Then there was Game 7, when the Lightning ran out of time after outshooting the visitors by a head-scratching 29-9 and holding the Habs without a shot on goal for an incredible 26:55, a stretch that bridged all three periods and included nary a shot in the second period.
“It felt like (Sunday) night they deserved better,” said St. Louis, whose first playoff series win as a head coach took place in the building in which he starred for all or part of 13 seasons and earned a Stanley Cup in 2004, the banner of which hung over his head. “I felt like Game 6 we probably deserved better and Dobes stole the game. Probably similar to how (Andrei Vasilevskiy) stole the game in Game 6. You have to find a way, and I feel (Sunday) like we did it differently.”
The 50-year-old St. Louis referred to his goalie, 24-year-old Jakub Dobes, who got his skates wet last season (16 games) and sported a .923 save percentage in the seven-game series while permitting rebounds the way a kid would let go of his Halloween candy. As for doing it “differently” in the series finale, well, the Canadiens set the mark for fewest shots on goal in winning an NHL playoff game (previously 10 on three occasions) and Montreal had not previously been held shotless in a playoff period in the more than 65 years since shots on goal became an official stat.
“You’re going to win 99 percent of those games, but at the end of the day, if you lose three games at home you’re probably not going to win the series,” said Lightning forward Brandon Hagel, who had six goals and was a plus-six in the series.
As Hagel alluded to, the Bolts lost three of their four home games. Winning at home in the postseason has been a massive detail Tampa Bay has not been able to conquer the past four springs. Actually, part of a fifth spring as well.
In fact, the Lightning have lost 13 of their past 15 postseason matches on home ice. It is a remarkably puzzling run that dates to Game 4 of their Cup final defeat at the hands of the Colorado Avalanche in 2022. Eight of the losses have been by one goal (four in OT) and two others by two goals thanks to empty netters. Alas, a loss is a loss.
“From start to finish, we stuck with our process and our plan,” said defenseman Ryan McDonagh, who turns 37 in June and has played 203 postseason games. “In the end, it doesn’t matter because they had two and we had one. So, it’s a loss.”
Cooper, whose team incredibly went its last 22 regular and postseason games having failed to take a lead into the second period, noted how the “hockey gods have been in my corner many, many times.” That was certainly the case in winning the Cup in the Edmonton bubble in 2020 and at the end of a pandemic-altered 2021. There was a third straight Cup final in 2022. In Game 7 against Montreal, those gods were shining down on the other team.
How else to explain it when you hold a team to a single-digit shot total and lose?
How else to explain it when the Habs’ Nick Suzuki opens the scoring by deflecting a Kaiden Guhle shot that would have gone harmlessly wide to Vasilevskiy’s left had it not caromed off defenseman J.J. Moser’s skate and into the net?
How else to explain it when Alex Newhook, demonstrating tremendous hand-eye coordination, bats a puck out of midair that goes off Vasilevskiy’s back and in the net with less than nine minutes remaining in the game?
It all took place in front of an astonished home crowd that might have thought it was witnessing something out of Groundhog Day.
“It’s not the movies,” said Cooper. “It’s not something you can retake and get the scene right. It’s live theater right there in front of you, and you never know what's going to happen. That's why it's so unbelievable to be a part of something like this, but it damn well stings when you're on the wrong side of it."
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