By The Tampa Bay Lightning find themselves in a familiar spot once again in the first round of the playoffs.
The Lightning trail Montreal 1-0 in their best-of-seven series, making this the fourth consecutive first-round playoff series that the Lightning have fallen behind.
In 2023, the Lightning fell behind 3-0 to the Toronto Maple Leafs before losing the series in six games. In 2024, the Lightning fell behind 3-0 to the Florida Panthers before losing the series 4-1. In 2025, the Lightning lost the first two games of the series before losing to the Florida Panthers in six games.
See a pattern here.
In game one, the Lightning took too many stupid penalties and paid the price, falling to the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 in OT as the Canadiens scored three power play goals. Once again, Tampa falls behind in a playoff series 1-0 for the fourth consecutive season.
This wasn’t just another loss; it was Tampa’s 10th loss in their last 11 postseason games, going back to games four and six in the 2022 Stanley Cup final against Colorado.
This year, the Lightning have fallen behind the Montreal Canadiens 1-0 despite having home-ice advantage. They cannot afford to fall behind 2-0 in this series against a very good Montreal team.
If this is a silver lining for the Lightning in all of this, it is the fact that they are 8-5 all-time in playoff series when they begin the series with a home loss. The Lightning are also 13-8 all-time in Game 2 of a series at home.
Lightning Brandon Hagel says they will win one eventually. “We’re probably gonna win one eventually. Don’t know when it’s gonna be, but we’re going to come in and try to execute our game plan as much as we can to the best of our ability, and that’ll give us a chance to win.”
It starts with staying out of the penalty box.Montreal torched the Lightning’s PK, scoring three goals on five chances in the 3-2 OT win. The Lightning outplayed Montreal five on five, but the Canadiens’ power play proved to be too much for the Lightning.
Montreal has owned the Lightning in three of their five games(including playoffs) this season in the third period. If the Lightning are to get back in the series, they have to save their best for the third period.
Without saying this is a must-win game, it sure looks like it is. If the Lightning go down 2-0 to Montreal, the chances of them winning four out of five against Montreal, with three of those games in Montreal, are slim to none. That’s not being pessimistic, that’s just the truth based on how they played game one and how they have played in the last three seasons in the playoffs.
With the playoff experience this team has, it was disappointing to see them get waxed in the first round of the playoffs the last three seasons. And they are not off to a great start this postseason. The regular seasons have been great, but the playoffs have given Lightning fans little to nothing to get excited about.
Could this team go on and win four of the next five against Montreal? Sure, they could, and I certainly hope that they do.
It is not how you start the series; it is how you finish the series. If the Lightning end up winning this series, the disappointing play of the special teams In game one will be just a footnote in the annals of Game One.
Game two is Tuesday night in Tampa, with games three and four coming up Friday and Sunday in Montreal.
