Lightning vs. Montreal 2026 Playoff Game 5 Raw Reaction

Stevie Z shares a frustrated reaction to the Bolts 3-2 Game 5 loss vs. Montreal.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What is going on, everyone? Stevie Z here, 4-1 Channel Side Podcast. Here to bring a raw reaction after the Tampa Bay Lightning lose game five to the Montreal Canadians 3-2. Um yeah, I'll I'll say this. Uh Montreal 100% deserve to win that game. They looked like the more urgent team. They beat Tampa all over the ice tonight. Out battling in corners, hustling the pucks, getting sticks in lanes. They had a noticeable jump about it, understanding that if they won here tonight, game five, which is a swing game after a 2-2 series, that they could go home to Montreal Friday night and really have two opportunities to close it out. And Tampa is now I mean, they have no more room, no margin for error. And it was really disappointing, really disheartening to watch the lightning tonight. Um Vasilevsky was not good. He did not look comfortable at all in that. Uh just rebound control was not there. First goal to Gallagher who gets inserted into the lineup. Or just overplays a move by new hook. And the hook is in the blue paint, and Gallagher is reinserted into the lineup. Puts it in, one zero, three minutes in. And I mean Tampa's like Tampa had a fair amount of shots. But I I don't I I don't know really like how many of those were truly dangerous tonight. And we can talk about, yeah, sure. I mean in all situations like high danger chances for 10 to 12 for Tampa tonight. It's not good enough from Tampa. I just didn't like the urgency. I I just I just have a problem. It's game five in your building. Okay. And from start to finish, you got outworked. Tampa got outworked the entire game. I I don't care what the score was, right? All the games have been close, this entire series. If you watch the game, from the opening puck drop, Montreal was all over the place, and they played that way for the entire 60 minutes. I can't think of a lull in their game tonight. This was a very mature performance for Montreal, and this was a very frustrating, stupid, immature, lackluster. You can give your your adjective the Lightnings game tonight. Because they didn't bring it. And one scored by Dominic James, who has who finally gets a goal. He has deserved it in this series. Nick Suzuki finally got a five-on-five point tonight. That one of those players finally got a point five on five for Montreal tonight. And it was an assist. Might have been a secondary assist. That bottom six for Montreal that I said in the preview that they were gonna have to find scoring. Those guys, like Bulduk and Doc and Texier, five goals, six assists, eleven points in the series, that's freaking ridiculous. Tampa's bottom six is being outplayed in every single game. They are non-existent. I am sorry. I love Corey Perry. He played seven minutes tonight. But like, if you have guys like that that you can only play seven minutes, like what are they doing on the team? Like, you can't trust him in anything. Like, that geeky Jurgensen's Perry line tonight, every time I watch them on the ice, they look like it was an extended shift. They were getting hemmed into the zone. Uh Lilliberg, noticeable, not in a good way. He has struggled this entire series. For all the work that he did prior to the playoffs, where I thought he looked really good and I really liked the deaths to Lilliberg, he's almost like come back down to earth a little bit, or he has come crashing back down to earth. He has not looked comfortable at all this series. Anytime the puck is behind the net and he goes back to retrieve it, someone is on him, and now he's fighting to get the puck out, right? Or he's losing the battle, or he's falling on the ice. Something is happening where every time he has to go retrieve the puck or make a play in the defensive zone, it's more oftentimes than not, it's not it's not a favorable situation for Tampa. Face-offs tonight. Lightning won 34%. Nick Paul out with an illness. But holy shit, man, you could you win 17 out of 50 face-offs. Nick Suzuki, excellent tonight. 9 for 12, 75%. Brain Point, 5 for 11. Dominic James, 0 for 8. Donnie Gore, 2 for 5. Jake Gensell, 1 for 5. Anthony Sorov, 9 for 18. I mean, shit, man. You gotta have some urgency. And and if you listened and watched the uh local broadcast on scripts, when Brian Engblom says something like, Oh, this lightning team doesn't have their legs tonight, that's a problem. It's the it's the playoffs. I almost dropped a severe F-bomb there. It's the playoffs. You don't get nights off. You are not allowed nights off in the playoffs. You do not you are you can't take it for granted. You are not promised. What I mean, you know, obviously that's so cliche. Let's not even go there. How the lightning played tonight was so uninspiring. They waited until Yan uh Yanni, till Vasi was pulled by the looks of it from tonight. That was the best thing the lightning did because Vasi will get it to him in a second. The lightning, just all the pressure in those last two, three minutes of the game when the goalie's pulled, and you decided to shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot. This overpassing shit has got to stop. Everything has to be direct. Look at how Montreal is scoring their goals. They are just putting pucks on net. First goal, drive to the net. Gallagher finds it in the crease. Second goal? How did how did Montreal even score their second goal? Gosh dang, so much has happened. Hold on, let me go back. I'm being irresponsible right now. Not knowing what the hell happened. Oh, there it is. Kirby Doc. Gonzalvas getting worked over. And then Lilleberg? They're at the crime scene again. Doesn't cut Doc off in front of the net and lets him get net front on on Vasi? Come on, man. And then the third goal, Vasi, give me a freaking break. Give me a break. Yeah, he's got some snap on the puck. It hits your bottom, it hits the glove. And you let it in. Like that coupled with the lightning are taking far too many shots from outside. They're not willing to get into the dirty areas like they were on Sunday night. They're not willing to go there. Not battling. Yeah, sure, they got some bounces all in the two-on-ones, right? But you can't that's not sustainable hockey. You're not gonna win that way in the playoffs all the time. You finally got some odd man rushes in the series. They were bound to happen because Montreal was being so aggressive tonight. So aggressive. They were all over Tampa. Tampa had no answer, and now Tampa is down to their last opportunity to send it to a game seven. And then the Bell Center is gonna be rocking. The Lightning are gonna have to play their best game of the season just to extend it. Which, look, by trends of the series, you would think that the Lightning would win it. Somebody's gonna have to win two games in this series. So if Montreal wants to win the series, they're gonna have to win two in a row. If Tampa wants to win the series, they're gonna have to win two in a row. It's gonna have to happen at some point. It's very much like when Tampa beat Toronto in the first round a couple years ago. They had to the first team to win two in a row in the series, I believe, won a series. That was Tampa. Look, Montreal has been the faster team for a majority of the series. Like I said, I think Tampa has been second best a lot of this series. Tonight, Tampa was second best the entire game. That is not good. That is frustrating. I don't like it when you hear, oh, they don't have their legs tonight. That's bullshit. It's the playoffs. Get your ass up, get ready to go. Stop with the bad body language, Cooch. Like, you know, you what do you think? Montreal's gonna feel sorry for you? No, they don't care. They want to punish you. Right, Tampa. No answer tonight. Just lackluster, man. This looks like it was the freaking regular season for the Lightning. Like they were coming off of a long road trip or something. First game back. After a long road trip, just sleepwalking through the game. Tampa, will Tampa ever score the first goal? They chased the entire game. They didn't lead once. I have they I mean, did not lead one time in this game. That's the problem. You're going down early and you're caught chasing the game for the duration of it, and then you're having to put together some shifts, and next thing you know, you know you decide to play more direct hockey, and the puck ends up in the net. That's great. It would be awesome. It would be really awesome if the Lightning could score first and make Montreal chase at some point in this series. They did it in the third period of the last game, which was really good. Tampa is really good at shutting down opponents from when they're in front. I mean, that's just kind of the experience factor that they have. But what good is experience if you're the one chasing the entire time because you can't get your own head out of your ass when the puck is dropped? Maybe I'm being harsh. I understand that they've got one game left, but I just don't listen, for all the good that they do that they've done in this series, it's so quickly undone by performances like this. And listen, I'm not a pie in the sky type of fan. I'm gonna lay it how it is. That was an unacceptable performance. Not nearly as bad as the overtime. No, maybe it was as bad as the overtime game. I mean, they got shots. The overtime game where Lane Hudson scored the winner. That was that was pretty bad from the Lightning. That performance was pretty bad in totality. I just thought that tonight Montreal looked really good. Really good. Tampa had no answer. Tampa was so slow tonight. And look, Tampa's not a slow team. Tampa has some slow players, but Tampa definitely can play fast. But I I think like some of these guys think that they have more time on the ice than they do. Like everything, there's it's just no urgency to the game tonight. I don't know. I mean, I don't know. But you what you're looking I don't want to get to my my summer shows yet, the summer lineup of shows that I have yet. So it'd be awesome if a light you can move game six, get this thing back for game seven, and then actually some win two in a row in series. That would be great. These teams are evenly matched. I mean, it's been a really good series, it's been a really entertaining series from a lightning perspective. I think it's been a very frustrating series because Tampa is just not playing well enough consistently, they're just playing good in moments, right? Their best hockey I can think of has been played in the latter half of the third period in game two, along with OT. And then in game four, where they really just took over that third period. Those are just the two sh the glimmering, shimmering highlights that I can think of of moments when Tampa has actually put together good, consistent hockey for long stretches of time. Outside of that, in this series, it's been Montreal. And the thing is, it's not it's not even that Montreal is necessarily playing good, they're just playing chaotic hockey all over you, and Tampa has not been able to match it, they haven't been able to catch them tonight. They did on the two-on-ones, which is fine. But like I said, the way that Montreal plays, you can't be banking on odd-man rushes for points. You're gonna have to get some dirty goals, you're gonna have to be more direct, get net front. Dobesh was completely comfortable tonight. That's not good. Well, I don't understand why Tampa like can't, if it worked in the previous game, just try to go back to it. Montreal hasn't changed up how they've played at all this series, and it's got them the series lead to this point. Yes, you know, I mean, they've had some frustrating losses, but Tampa, it seems like Tampa is changing up the way they play too much in this series. Like it's not consistent. You would think that Montreal is the more experienced team. Like the overpassing, man, I don't understand it. Kucharov, like Kucharoff could easily have 20 plus shots a game if he wanted to. A lot of the stuff with the one touch passing, or when he is he gets the puck on the half wall and deeks and makes his way to the middle, and you're thinking, shoot, and then he passes out of it to get to the wing because he's trying to get the goalie moving. Like, trust your shot. You score 40 goals, right? You score what 44 goals? Like, trust your shot. Holy shit. You know, like sometimes Kuchrov is deferring because he wants to make the pass. This overpassing hockey is not the way. I'm sorry. It's not the way. You cannot pass the puck into the net. Every time you have an opportunity to shoot, Montreal is taking that away because Tampa players are hesitating, looking for a perfect shot. Just put the puck through someone's chest. Do something, make blocking shots hurt. But like shots are not getting through from the point because they're getting blocked, shots are not getting through from the half wall, from the circles because they're getting blocked, overpassing, like trying to like it. What the six on five? How many times did they try to get to point in the bumper? Jeez, it's not a freaking power play. Do something else that's been taken away. He has one goal from that spot in the playoffs. He has three goals since April 3rd. How many goals have been from that spot? I can't think of many, right? So try something else, please. Please. Everything is so static. The power play is so static. I know that they scored, what, five or six goals in this series, but it has let them down at major points in this series. Three straight power plays tonight that Tampa got, what, in the first period? Didn't convert on any of them because they are overpassing. The puck is getting cleared. You're looking for the perfect shot. Dobesh's glove was not good tonight. But guess what? When you don't continuously go back at it and you're not challenging, like, yeah, sure, you had 46 shots. I don't know how many of those shots were challenging. He's just too comfortable in net. Look, and I'm sorry, I may sound like I'm all doom and gloom. I'm just not happy with that performance. I just don't think that performance, regular season performances like that have no place in playoffs round one, game five. If you feel that that's acceptable and you feel like I'm being too harsh, maybe I'm not the one that you should listen to. But I'm gonna keep it real with you. Tampa played that game like it was the dog days of the season in mid-February, mid-March. Like just sleepy. Sleepy. Yeah, they had moments where they were skating really well. They were they had some some tape-to-tape passing. Sure, you're gonna have moments like that in the game, but they got outworked across the board tonight. And you know what? That is that is just that's not cutting it. That's not cutting it. We need more from the bottom six. There was gonna be a game where Dobesh was gonna steal one, and he didn't even have to steal it. Like, he made the save that he was supposed to make. Like, that's not necessarily stealing a game. I I think stealing game is when Tampa's putting up challenging shots, and you know, like the guy looks like he's his crease is made of concrete and he's playing street hockey in net, and like he's playing so well, so comfortable. We expect this at this point. He should be playing like this. I mean, he played this way down the stretch. Vasi got Vasi got beat tonight by an inferior goalie because Vasi wasn't Vasi. But you can't have off nights. You can't. There's no room for it. I'm sorry for repeating myself. I just a little bit tired, a little bit frustrated, annoyed by that performance. Al Tampa waited until the last three minutes and just start throwing everything on net. Just do it from the jump. A direct goal, a direct ugly goal is no less important, right? Or is no more better. Let me rephrase that. A pretty sexy goal is no better than a direct ugly goal. Right? They're all the same. We don't care, we don't ask how, we just ask how many. You gotta get more, more to the net from the jump, more urgency from the jump. Like, I I can understand, and Tampa's giving up some stupid goals this series, right? But you give up a goal first three minutes, you get the game tied, then you give up a goal 11 seconds later, then early in the third period, you start the third period well, they get one opportunity, their first opportunity in the third period, and Vasi flubs it. Gosh, give me a break, man. Give me a break. This team has shut off in this series at the wrong times. Like they've they've had they've had mental lapses at the wrong time in the series, and it's cost them. I was really excited. I thought game four was their best game of the series in terms of well, not the best game, but it was vintage Tampa Bay comeback stuff. Ugh, it's just a bad taste in my mouth from the night.

unknown 19:59

Right?

SPEAKER_00 20:00

Jay Gensel continues to be a uh on a tear in the playoffs with eight straight, eight straight game, eight-game point streak in the playoffs. Oh my word, man. I'm just looking at this box score. Like Brendan Gallagher, Herbie Doc, Alex Texier. Oh. Yeah, it's Suzuki got a 5 on 5 point secondary assist. One minute into the third period, and then they held on. They defended incredibly well. Props to them. Because I think that from a from a standpoint of how they played tonight, it was a very, very, very mature performance from them. Full credit. That this is a performance that you would expect from the lightning that we just haven't gotten. We're getting nothing from the fourth line. We finally got something from the bottom six, they've uh from the third line, they've provided energy, just not much scoring. Dominic James finally gets on the board. And what concerns me is just that when Hegel, Gensel, and Kutcher not going, Wool is going because it's certainly not Brain Point. Uh McDerna and Chernak have scared me a lot of the time in their own defensive zone. They kind of get pressured and the puck gets turned over. And next thing you know, that Montreal has some extended zone time. I think Crozier has looked good. I think stated earlier that Lilleberg has not been good this series. It seems like the series, the pace of play is a little too fast for him. Uh, Radish and Mosier, they've been really good in the series. Radish has been really good, especially some of the defensive plays he's had to make. Uh just trying to negate odd man rushes or you know, one-on-one defending uh from the red line in, really. I think he's he's been really good. I mean, he's averaging 25 minutes a game, I think, in the playoffs. So like that, that's really good. Vassy has been excellent for a majority of the series just tonight. He had an off night, so you you can't have two nights like at this point in the season. And you know it. You can't have two bad nights in a row. So what we're hoping for is the bolts are gonna bounce back on Friday. They're gonna have to bounce back on Friday because if not, then we're gonna come on here on the 401 channel side podcast and we're gonna be asking some tough questions. And I don't want to ask those questions yet. Not not at this time. But you gotta win two straight, and nobody has done that yet. So somebody is going to do that in this series. But anyway, guys, look, that'll wrap it up for this Raw reaction. The sun will come up tomorrow. The bolts will play on Friday. And we hope that when we do a Raw reaction on Friday, it is one of happiness and joy. And that we're forcing game seven and not one where we are questioning absolutely every decision that was made in the series and just gonna Monday morning quarterback that thing. But we get a game seven on Sunday, and hopefully it's back in our building and it's rocking. Uh, you know what? Ticket prices went up for game five. I was pleasantly surprised the first two games when you looked at it, the ticket prices were fairly low. And then they shot up drastically. I wonder if Montreal fans are buying them up. I saw I saw some people on the socials complaining about there's too many Montreal fans. Guys, look, Montreal fans are gonna be there regardless. Like it's a ticket here in Tampa is pennies compared to what they're gonna pay in the belt center. So just expect it. They do it to everybody. We're no different. Just live with it. Right. Um, but yeah, looking forward to uh a game six where hopefully the bolts pull out, pull it out, pull out, oh gosh, uh pull it off. And we're hoping to look for a better raw reaction on Friday night. Talk soon, guys. See ya.