Deadspin | Canadiens ready for home chance to eliminate Lightning in tight series 
Apr 29, 2026; Tampa, Florida, USA; Montreal Canadiens goaltender Jakub Dobes (75) makes a save against the Tampa Bay Lightning in the third period during game five of the first round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Benchmark International Arena. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images The Montreal Canadiens are aware of the opportunity before them as they prepare to host the Tampa Bay Lightning for Game 6 of their Stanley Cup playoff series on Friday.
Thanks to a 3-2 victory Wednesday night in Tampa for a 3-2 edge in the Eastern Conference first-round meeting, the young Canadiens have the opportunity to knock out the Lightning in the best-of-seven series.
“It’s going to be loud and going to be fun,” defenseman Kaiden Guhle said Thursday. “We’ll use the crowd’s energy to our advantage, but we’ve got to stay even-keeled. … Just gotta keep playing our game, not get nervous, not do too much.”
Montreal finished tied in points (106) with Tampa Bay during the regular season, placing behind due to the tiebreaker. The Canadiens were considered an underdog in this series, however, because of the vast amount of playoff experience on the Lightning’s roster.
Instead of being overwhelmed, the Canadiens have shown plenty of fortitude.
“It was such a great opportunity to go against a team who probably set the standard the last 10 years,” Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said. “We haven’t done anything yet, but it’s a challenge and still is a challenge. This is a veteran, talented group that is not going to go away easy, wasn’t going to give you anything for free.”
A huge key in Montreal’s edge has been goaltender Jakub Dobes, who has stood toe-to-toe against Tampa’s surefire hall-of-famer Andrei Vasilevskiy. Dobes stopped 38 shots in Wednesday’s win, 12 during the final three minutes while the Lightning pushed for the equalizer with an extra attacker.
“He’s a confident guy. He likes his big moments and wants his big moments” Guhle said. “You look at his first game last year, a shutout against the defending Stanley Cup champs. I think he lives for this. I think that’s what makes him so good.”
Although they trail the series, the Lightning have not exactly been outclassed. Through the five games, the Canadiens have scored a total of one more goal (14-13) and every result has been decided by a single tally.
Hurting Tampa Bay’s cause is the scoring struggles of stars Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point, who each have tallied only once, and the middling goaltending from Vasilevskiy and his .880 save percentage.
From a team perspective, one statistic stands out: Montreal has opened the scoring in four of the five games.
“Our starts, we’ve had a tough time, especially at the end of the regular season,” said Lightning coach Jon Cooper, whose squad won the lone game it scored first. “It’s not the recipe to have to keep chasing the game.”
With that in mind, the Lightning can look to rely on their experience to help extend the series and bring it back home for a deciding seventh game. A team that has accomplished as much as the Lightning over the last decade has overcome plenty of adversity along the way.
“This is nine straight years (of) making the playoffs,” Cooper said. “If you had a team that didn’t believe, that streak wouldn’t be going on right now.”
And now is the opportunity for a roster filled with players who have won multiple Stanley Cup titles (back to back in 2020 and 2021) to show its mettle. Otherwise, it will be a fourth consecutive year of being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.
“I think everyone personally, when Game 6 is over, will learn a lot about themselves,” said Tampa Bay forward Brandon Hagel, who has scored six of his club’s 13 goals in the series. “This team will learn a lot about themselves. There’s not much more to say. You’ve just got to kind of leave it up to us.”
–Field Level Media
#Deadspin #Canadiens #ready #home #chance #eliminate #Lightning #tight #series
Apr 29, 2026; Tampa, Florida, USA; Montreal Canadiens goaltender Jakub Dobes (75) makes a save against the Tampa Bay Lightning in the third period during game five of the first round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Benchmark International Arena. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images The Montreal Canadiens are aware of the opportunity before them as they prepare to host the Tampa Bay Lightning for Game 6 of their Stanley Cup playoff series on Friday.
Thanks to a 3-2 victory Wednesday night in Tampa for a 3-2 edge in the Eastern Conference first-round meeting, the young Canadiens have the opportunity to knock out the Lightning in the best-of-seven series.
“It’s going to be loud and going to be fun,” defenseman Kaiden Guhle said Thursday. “We’ll use the crowd’s energy to our advantage, but we’ve got to stay even-keeled. … Just gotta keep playing our game, not get nervous, not do too much.”
Montreal finished tied in points (106) with Tampa Bay during the regular season, placing behind due to the tiebreaker. The Canadiens were considered an underdog in this series, however, because of the vast amount of playoff experience on the Lightning’s roster.
Instead of being overwhelmed, the Canadiens have shown plenty of fortitude.
“It was such a great opportunity to go against a team who probably set the standard the last 10 years,” Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said. “We haven’t done anything yet, but it’s a challenge and still is a challenge. This is a veteran, talented group that is not going to go away easy, wasn’t going to give you anything for free.”
A huge key in Montreal’s edge has been goaltender Jakub Dobes, who has stood toe-to-toe against Tampa’s surefire hall-of-famer Andrei Vasilevskiy. Dobes stopped 38 shots in Wednesday’s win, 12 during the final three minutes while the Lightning pushed for the equalizer with an extra attacker.
“He’s a confident guy. He likes his big moments and wants his big moments” Guhle said. “You look at his first game last year, a shutout against the defending Stanley Cup champs. I think he lives for this. I think that’s what makes him so good.”
Although they trail the series, the Lightning have not exactly been outclassed. Through the five games, the Canadiens have scored a total of one more goal (14-13) and every result has been decided by a single tally.
Hurting Tampa Bay’s cause is the scoring struggles of stars Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point, who each have tallied only once, and the middling goaltending from Vasilevskiy and his .880 save percentage.
From a team perspective, one statistic stands out: Montreal has opened the scoring in four of the five games.
“Our starts, we’ve had a tough time, especially at the end of the regular season,” said Lightning coach Jon Cooper, whose squad won the lone game it scored first. “It’s not the recipe to have to keep chasing the game.”
With that in mind, the Lightning can look to rely on their experience to help extend the series and bring it back home for a deciding seventh game. A team that has accomplished as much as the Lightning over the last decade has overcome plenty of adversity along the way.
“This is nine straight years (of) making the playoffs,” Cooper said. “If you had a team that didn’t believe, that streak wouldn’t be going on right now.”
And now is the opportunity for a roster filled with players who have won multiple Stanley Cup titles (back to back in 2020 and 2021) to show its mettle. Otherwise, it will be a fourth consecutive year of being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.
“I think everyone personally, when Game 6 is over, will learn a lot about themselves,” said Tampa Bay forward Brandon Hagel, who has scored six of his club’s 13 goals in the series. “This team will learn a lot about themselves. There’s not much more to say. You’ve just got to kind of leave it up to us.”
–Field Level Media
![Vox Creative, Roku debut new docuseries on history of American soccer The history of American soccer has spanned well over 120 years, and to date there hasn’t been many opportunities to look back at that history. With the 2026 World Cup about a month away, we now have a chance to do just that. Yesterday, SB Nation collaborated with Vox Creative and Roku to release Soccer Meets America, a 3-part docuseries that focuses on the rise of soccer in the United States.Soccer Meets America focuses around the meteoric rise in popularity, from the North American Soccer League days of the 1970s and 1980s to the 1984 Olympics, leading up to the 1994 World Cup. At the center of that history was Alan Rothenberg, who served as soccer commissioner for the 1984 Olympics, the president of the U.S. Soccer Federation from 1990 to 1998, and the CEO of the 1994 World Cup. He also had a hand in the start of Major League Soccer, adding women’s soccer to the Olympic program in 1996, and bringing the 1999 Women’s World Cup to the United States.Rothenberg recently released a new book entitled The Big Bounce: The Surge that Shaped the Future of U.S. Soccer. In the book, Rothenberg gives an inside account at how American soccer went from the days where leagues were not organized and fizzled quickly to some of the success we have today with leagues like Major League Soccer, the National Women’s Soccer League, and the United Soccer Leagues. He details his firsthand knowledge of what it took for the United States to host a successful soccer tournament at the 1984 Olympics, how the nation won the bid to host the 1994 World Cup, and how he was able to organize the federation to get everything done and push the game forward. He recently sat down for an interview on the USA Soccercast, and in that interview, he mentioned that the rise in popularity of the game wasn’t based on one big moment, but a sustained buildup of momentum.“[American soccer] sort of grew when I was starting in 1990,” Alan Rothenberg, former U.S. Soccer president and CEO of the 1994 World Cup, said in an interview for the USA Soccercast. “I had a glimpse of it back in the 70s when we had a team in Los Angeles ,and obviously the Cosmos set the world on fire at that time with Pelé and [Franz] Beckebauer…you had Giants Stadium. So there were those glimpses of what the future could hold. But as we started to build the soccer federation, our [1994] World cup team and the World cup organization, it just started to accelerate. So there wasn’t one ‘a ha!’ moment.”Soccer Meets America takes the unique yet unexpected path of professional soccer in the United States andn gives the story some definition. Through people like Rothenberg, we see that the history is shaped by chance, persistence, and communities that kept the game alive long before it found mainstream recognition. Starting with the sport’s deep roots in immigrant communities in the 1920s, each episode of the docuseries explores soccer on a personal and professional level. Both nostalgic and forward-facing, the series features a variety of influential figures in American soccer and aims to resonate with new and old fans of the sport alike.But there’s also the legacy of the 2026 World Cup, which will be different from what it was in 1994. “Well, obviously we’re starting from a different baseline,” Rothenberg said. “We started at virtually zero back in [1990], and now we’re starting from level 60 or 75…so the dramatic consequences will not be the same as they were after 94, but I think it’s going to be a huge spike in interest in the sport at all levels.”To grow the history, you must learn from it. And Soccer Meets America gives you a review of America’s soccer history and strengthes the foundations from which the sport’s culture and passion were created. As we approach the World Cup, that knowledge will be essential to craft the legacy that will carry long after the tournament ends. #Vox #Creative #Roku #debut #docuseries #history #American #soccer](https://i3.wp.com/platform.sbnation.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/05/gettyimages-2273772608.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C10.740350081171%2C100%2C78.519299837658&w=1200&ssl=1 "Vox Creative, Roku debut new docuseries on history of American soccer The history of American soccer has spanned well over 120 years, and to date there hasn’t been many opportunities to look back at that history. With the 2026 World Cup about a month away, we now have a chance to do just that. Yesterday, SB Nation collaborated with Vox Creative and Roku to release Soccer Meets America, a 3-part docuseries that focuses on the rise of soccer in the United States.Soccer Meets America focuses around the meteoric rise in popularity, from the North American Soccer League days of the 1970s and 1980s to the 1984 Olympics, leading up to the 1994 World Cup. At the center of that history was Alan Rothenberg, who served as soccer commissioner for the 1984 Olympics, the president of the U.S. Soccer Federation from 1990 to 1998, and the CEO of the 1994 World Cup. He also had a hand in the start of Major League Soccer, adding women’s soccer to the Olympic program in 1996, and bringing the 1999 Women’s World Cup to the United States.Rothenberg recently released a new book entitled The Big Bounce: The Surge that Shaped the Future of U.S. Soccer. In the book, Rothenberg gives an inside account at how American soccer went from the days where leagues were not organized and fizzled quickly to some of the success we have today with leagues like Major League Soccer, the National Women’s Soccer League, and the United Soccer Leagues. He details his firsthand knowledge of what it took for the United States to host a successful soccer tournament at the 1984 Olympics, how the nation won the bid to host the 1994 World Cup, and how he was able to organize the federation to get everything done and push the game forward. He recently sat down for an interview on the USA Soccercast, and in that interview, he mentioned that the rise in popularity of the game wasn’t based on one big moment, but a sustained buildup of momentum.“[American soccer] sort of grew when I was starting in 1990,” Alan Rothenberg, former U.S. Soccer president and CEO of the 1994 World Cup, said in an interview for the USA Soccercast. “I had a glimpse of it back in the 70s when we had a team in Los Angeles ,and obviously the Cosmos set the world on fire at that time with Pelé and [Franz] Beckebauer…you had Giants Stadium. So there were those glimpses of what the future could hold. But as we started to build the soccer federation, our [1994] World cup team and the World cup organization, it just started to accelerate. So there wasn’t one ‘a ha!’ moment.”Soccer Meets America takes the unique yet unexpected path of professional soccer in the United States andn gives the story some definition. Through people like Rothenberg, we see that the history is shaped by chance, persistence, and communities that kept the game alive long before it found mainstream recognition. Starting with the sport’s deep roots in immigrant communities in the 1920s, each episode of the docuseries explores soccer on a personal and professional level. Both nostalgic and forward-facing, the series features a variety of influential figures in American soccer and aims to resonate with new and old fans of the sport alike.But there’s also the legacy of the 2026 World Cup, which will be different from what it was in 1994. “Well, obviously we’re starting from a different baseline,” Rothenberg said. “We started at virtually zero back in [1990], and now we’re starting from level 60 or 75…so the dramatic consequences will not be the same as they were after 94, but I think it’s going to be a huge spike in interest in the sport at all levels.”To grow the history, you must learn from it. And Soccer Meets America gives you a review of America’s soccer history and strengthes the foundations from which the sport’s culture and passion were created. As we approach the World Cup, that knowledge will be essential to craft the legacy that will carry long after the tournament ends. #Vox #Creative #Roku #debut #docuseries #history #American #soccer")
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