Lightning vs. Montreal 2026 Playoff Game 7 Raw Reaction

Stevie Z gives a reaction to a disheartening 2-1 Game 7 loss to Montreal as the Bolts exit in the 1st Round of the playoffs for the fourth consecutive year

Transcript

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What is going on, everyone? 401 Channel Side Podcast, Stevie Z here to bring you the Game 7 raw reaction as our Tampa Bay Lightning lose Game 7 2-1 to the Montreal Canadiens and lose the series 4 games to three. What am I feeling right now? I mean, look, the Lightning outshoot Montreal 29-9 in the series. I'm sorry, in the game. And they get two bounces tonight. I mean, the first goal is off Suzuki and then off Mosier in the net, and then the game-winning goal is a shot that gets deflected off the glass right behind Vasi and gets batted in by New Hook on the short side just underneath Vasi's arm. And you know what them are the breaks. And it's honestly disappointing. I mean, it's not that they didn't give their best effort. I I thought this was by far their best game of the series from start to finish. I just I mean we'll we'll pick it apart later on, but just speaking on game seven alone, the big guns weren't gunning. I mean, I'm I'm sorry. You know, you've got Vasilevsky, who is probably gonna win the Vesna, and he had a hell of a series. A hell of a series. You have Nikita Kucharov, who although he had six points in this series, I don't I don't really care about the point per game stuff. You know, like everybody I see it, and people tell me, oh, Kucharov's a point per game player over the last four playoffs. But I don't give a shit about point per game, it's about when you're getting the points. Game seven, one of the best players in the league, held silent, and this is what we've become accustomed to the last four years. Playoffs with Kuchrov, unfortunately. And it's it's a shame because I don't know, I'm trying not to give a hot take. It's just you want your stars to perform brain point invisible. Like, I know Brandon Hagel didn't didn't score in this game, right? But like he was the best player of the series for both teams. The depth took too long to get going. I mean, we we got two depth goals tonight. I'm sorry, one depth goal. Two of the last two games. Dominic James, Gonçalves again doing their thing. This time on the power play tonight. I mean, I just I I don't know. I don't really know where the bolts go from here. You know, I'm sure we'll we'll evaluate that in a couple days, but it's it's a fourth consecutive first round loss. And and listen, for the people who are who are thinking like you can run it back with this group next year, you cannot. I'm sorry, changes do have to be made. I I don't know what the surgery looks like in terms of this roster or the front office or the coaching staff, but changes do have to be made. And if you feel that the lightning should just sit on their hands and not evaluate everything because they played a really tough series and it went down the wire and it was even, listen, that's not the standard the Lightning have created for themselves. They themselves would tell you they are not living up to the own their own standard that they've created as a franchise for first-round exits is not acceptable. I had a thought before the game that this series really reminded me of 2015. Detroit was an aging team with some good players, some household names, and Tampa at the time was the young up-and-comers, full of speed and skill flair, with some veteran leadership mixed in. That tonight that that grizzly veteran team would find a way to get it done. And unfortunately, look, you got you just got goalied, right? Like, there's not much you can do. They don't register a shot in the second period, and they have less than 10 total shots all game, and they win the game. It's not for the lightning's lack of effort, it's just you didn't get one when you needed it. And that's uh that's the really unfortunate part. Yeah, I mean, I I'm interested what what the injury report is. Um I just I don't really know how to feel it's so new, right? Like, but I mean you look at it from a series scorecard for individual players, like Hegel was by far the best player for the Lightning. Uh then followed by Gensel and then Sorelli, who didn't score a lot of points, but he was tasked with shutting down Suzuki, and he did a hell of a job. A hell of a job. Suzuki got his first, his second 5 on 5 point in the series tonight and got a goal, and it was a double doink. Sorreli did his thing. You know, Dominic James, excellent. Johnny Gord, really good. Bjork Strand for the games that he played was was really good. Gonzalez came on the last couple games, last two games. Wow, um, to like to provide a little revisionist history, uh that that Cory Perry trade does not look good now, right? When you look back at it, you were like, okay, good leadership, good presence, but all in all, like, he's 41 years old. Like, what are you what are you gonna do? You know, you gave up a second-round pick for him. You know, I'm not sure he played more than 10 minutes in any game in this series, and he's just not he's just not able to keep up right with the pace. Still a very good player in some aspects, but in terms of skating ability and being able to keep up, like he has to use his hockey IQ to put himself in good places, and sometimes you just get beat to a spot, right? Mosier and and Radish were pretty good, and um Radish was just seeking to shoot everything in the series, and that was good to see. Um I thought McDonough and Chernak struggled a little bit in their own zone at times, just getting clean breakouts, you know, uh struggling to just make simple plays. Sometimes they would get hemmed in. Uh I thought the bottom pair was interesting. I thought Lillibert played a lot better coming into the playoffs than he did throughout the playoffs. I thought the first couple games to start the series, he wasn't very good, and then really game six was his best game, and tonight he didn't he didn't play poorly either. I thought he played decently well. I mean, look, I have no complaints about this game from the Lightning at all. None. Like, if anybody's gonna have a critique about this game and say, oh my gosh, this team is so shit, and whatever, look now. The game, the the the series was not lost tonight. Okay, it was it was it's a 50-50 possible game. The series was completely even on a knife's edge. Listen to these statistics from the entire series. Okay, in seven games, obviously, Montreal wins four, Tampa wins three. Goals, 16 for Montreal, 15 for Tampa, even strength goals, 11 for Montreal, 10 for Tampa, power play goals, five apiece, penalty minutes, 95 for Montreal, 89 for Tampa, face-off win percentage, 55% Montreal, 45 Tampa. I mean, it's about as even as you can get. Every game was a one-goal game. Every game. What I what I don't like, and this is a this is something that is concerning to me, is the lightning continually give up the first goal and have to chase. Tonight, I thought the lightning had to get the first goal and force Montreal to chase. The way they were playing defensively, the way that Montreal, the way that Montreal could get no shots, just imagine if Tampa could have gotten the first goal and forced Montreal to chase the game. But they they didn't, and I just did they get the first goal at all in this series. I can't recollect at this time. I I I can't. I'm just a little frustrated, like annoyed. Have to be lightning hockey is done for the season. It's still fresh. You know, like I am very annoyed with the stars of our team outside of Brandon Hagel and Jake Gensel for just didn't do anything. Right? Like, they didn't do anything, they did little to nothing when it mattered. And it's a it's a problem when like a rookie in Dom James, who I thought outside of Hegel was Tampa's best player in this series, like I'll I'll say it again, guys. I do not care if Kuchev is a point per game player over the playoffs the last four years. I care about what is he doing in elimination games, okay, to help the lightning either win the series or stave off elimination. That is what I care about. Those are clutch moments. And the last clutch moment that I can really think of. Right, is like did maybe Kuchrop had one in 2022? He would have had to 21? I don't know. I don't know. It's just really hard because he's probably also gonna win the MVP. Right? Like he'll probably win the heart. I and I wouldn't be surprised if he did. But lucky it's a regular season award. Cause and the thing is, like look, you people will say, oh well, he's pulling, he's pulling the rope, he's doing his part. Listen to me, you cannot have the 128, 130-point season that you have, right? And you are a almost a two two-point per game type player, one and a half points, two points per game, whatever, whatever he is. Somewhere around there. He went stretches in the season where he was averaging two points a game. And when your team needs you the most, you can't you're nowhere to be found. I I have a problem with that. Sorry. One goal in the series. I don't think he had any assists. That's disappointing. Yeah. Um, so Montreal will go on to face the Buffalo Sabres starting on Wednesday. And listen, if people are thinking that Tampa is just gonna get back to it again next year, listen, Toronto missed the playoffs, Florida missed the playoffs, Ottawa looks good. Detroit had a late season collapse. Montreal and Buffalo look like they could be here to stay. All these teams are coming up, and not of them, not all of them are gonna make the playoffs. I I am fully expecting next year to be the hardest for Tampa to make the playoffs. I am fully expecting it. Because you cannot expect the same type of drop-off from Florida next year or Toronto. Now, obviously, we have to see if teams like Montreal and Buffalo are for real, if they can continue to do it, right? This is the second year of Montreal making the playoffs in a row, but they appear for real. It's much different, right, when teams are gunning for you and you're gonna get their best. But you look at Ottawa, you look at Detroit, Florida and Toronto will be there again. Like I fully expect next year will be tough for the Lightning. And it's like it's so hard not to go back and look at hindsight from the Olympic break afterwards, and maybe some of the trends, right, with giving up the first goal and constantly having to chase the game, and it was just a story of this entire series, and the amount of bounces that Montreal got was insane. But listen, it was seven games of it, and you make your own luck, right? Like, luck is when preparation and opportunity meet, and Montreal earned those breaks. They did. They listen, over the in court the entire course of this series, Montreal was the better team. And I should have mentioned that earlier. Montreal was the better team. Tampa was second best for a majority of this series. The only way, the only reason why it did not get out of hand is because the guy in net for the Tampa Bay Lightning, Andre Vasilevski, was really freaking good. Well, he was really good. Conversely, the guy for Montreal and Jakob Dobesh as a rookie is really good. Positioning-wise, like, and I I just felt throughout the entire series that Tampa was not going at him. It was a lot of shots to the chest, they were shooting it for sure. But it just felt like he was never in any danger at all through this series. And you know what? They have a good mix of youthful, youthful, and youthful ignorance and some experience on their team, and they used it perfectly. And Marty St. Louis is now 2-0 in playoff series where he's coached against John Cooper, the first one being when he was a special advising coach for the power play uh for John Tortarella in the 2019 sweep uh of the Tampa Bay Lightning versus the Columbus Blue Jackets. We all remember that, and now this one. And so yeah. That is uh That's the really tough that's just the really tough part of it. And so where do the lightning go from here? Um I'm not really sure to be quite honest with you. Like I like I've stated earlier, I don't think you can run it back with this group. I I do think I hate to say it, but I do think that maybe there's an element I I I get the impression of sometimes they rest on their laurels to just kind of get them through, get them by, so that they don't play hard. But other teams just whenever they play the lightning, they bring that that oomph that I just don't feel sometimes, or I feel it sometimes the lightning just don't match, right? Like, and they can match it whenever they choose to. You know, it's just I don't know. I mean, I I watch teams like Colorado in the playoffs, and I watch teams like Carolina in the playoffs, and they go strength to strength. They start the they start the season that way, and look how they dominate throughout the playoffs, and it's just like we just watch the lightning falter for the last four years, and then they get to the playoffs, and it's teetering and tottering back and forth, and then you get a game five performance like that, where although it was a one-goal game, it was a terrible performance from the lightning, and then game six and seven, you gotta deliver, and like Dobesh hadn't stolen a game yet, and tonight he did. I just I want to see more. Oh gosh, I I I don't this is not correct for me, but I just I'm feeling it in the moment. I want to see more hunger, I want to see more of the Brandon Hagel, Dominic James type heart. It is not there throughout the team. I don't care what anybody says, it is not. We need players who are willing to go to the areas that are uncomfortable, especially in the playoffs. Listen, and I know this may rub some people the wrong way. 21 and 86 are not willing to go to those areas. And and they don't have to, they're high-skilled players. But when the going gets tough, you gotta do whatever the hell it takes. And people like I I I saw some people say that like maybe it's time to trade Kutarov. I don't really know. I mean, I'm not necessarily opposed to it, you know, but the thing is, is like in the regular season he's he's really doing it all by it's not he's doing it all by himself, but he's just a such a massive part of this team getting to the playoffs. He just is is just we're not seeing that same Kucharov from the regular season in the playoffs, it's not translating at all. And so, I mean, that's like Braden Point. I I know people were waiting for him to show up, but look, I mean, he's had a rough year. Like 18 goals, but he just barely cracked 50 points. Like, this is who Braden Point was this year. And we were hoping that the playoffs would be a second season. They weren't for him. And that's a shame. Um, like people who may clamor that Briesbois should be gone, he's probably not going to be because the Lightning um denied a interview request by the Toronto Maple Leafs for Julian Bricebois. Uh, but he is definitely not without c criticism. Um especially like this past trade deadline, like that was pretty bad. Like in the moment I understand why he did it, why why he did it, but that like Cory Perry wasn't what this team needed. Like that's not what they needed at all. It was good to get him back, but I mean what he had no like he had no on-ice impact. Maybe in the locker room he was good, but he had no on-ice impact. Um and just like you just think about it, like going back, like last year we got Yanni Gordon Bjorkstrand. And Bjorkstrand in totality was a disappointment, right? So you really traded two first just to get Yanni Gord back. Because there's no way Bjorkstrand is coming back with the lightning. Like, if they're gonna have cap space to go get somebody, like go get somebody else, right? A good skater, but he just never produced with the lightning in the manner that we thought we would get. And he's made, I mean, he's made some good acquisitions. It's just really hard. Like in the in the moment, I don't I don't know what to feel. And I'm sure all of you are feeling the same way, and you know what, if you're feeling a little irrational, that's okay. You just watched your team lose in seven games to a very good Montreal team who you felt we could have beaten, and in in terms of game seven, probably should have beaten, but we watched them and they didn't, and that's really hard. That sucks. So I don't I don't blame you if you're feeling a little irrational. I'm I'm feeling that way a little bit right now. I'm just trying to remain a little calm and collected because, like, initially, you're thinking I'm on the couch watching a game, and I'm saying what I'm saying to you right now. There's no way that they can run this back. Um, the TV crew from Scripps seems to think that a majority of this team will be back next year. Maybe. I think that this team needs a massive shakeup, something that will rattle the locker room a little bit to be like, listen, you're not performing in the playoffs anymore. We're gonna start cutting ties. You know, like I was actually I was actually sitting with my dad watching the game, and as the game ended, I just began to wonder, and I said something to him along the lines of I asked him, do you think Julian Brisbois will use the the lack of Kucherov uh Kucharov's clutch performances in the playoffs against him when it comes to contract negotiations? And then that's something for you guys to ponder and think about. Um, and I'm sure I'll address that. I mean, I've got a whole list of summer shows that we'll get into off-season shows that I was kind of hoping to stave off for obviously later as we got into the off-season and into the summer. Um, but we may get to that sooner. At this moment, I'm gonna be honest with you, I don't want to watch any more freaking hockey. Like uh like the roller coaster that this team has taken us on with all the injuries and like the the start of the season, which wasn't the best, and then they got it together, and then they went on that 21-1 stretch, and then they hit the Olympic break, and that team came back, and the lightning were unrecognizable. And you know, Victor Hedman is and Dominic James are out for a little bit, and you know, Nick Paul hurt multiple times throughout the season, Braden Point going through some personal issues like John Cooper and the loss of his father, and how maybe that would impact things just for him as the head coach of this team, and Mio Kucharov on his toward pace throughout the season, and and Vasi looking like back to vintage Vasi throughout the year, and you know, like this team clinched, but people were unsure of what they were gonna look like in the playoffs. And I was one of those people that I just wasn't sure if they could flip the switch. Um, did they flip it? Maybe, maybe not. Depends on your definition. Like the other team has something to say about it, right? Like the Montreal Canadians are a very good team. They got 106 points, they were tied with the lightning. I'm not like it is what it is. We faced them in the first round, like it happened, it doesn't matter anymore. It's just really unfortunate that that's it came down to a game seven, and the lightning ended up on the short end of it. Um but yeah, I mean, I'm a little worn out from the season. It'll it'll be hard for me to just sit down and watch somebody else, another team or some other teams play hockey in the moment right now. I mean, maybe maybe I'll get to it, but I'm definitely not gonna be uh trying to make time for it, if that makes sense. If it's on the TV, it's on the TV. If it's you know, but I'm not gonna be rushing home to run on the couch and you know, watch any of these other series because of just feeling dejected, you know, and uh watching some of the post-game interviews tonight, uh, you feel for a player like Brandon Hagel, who he just lays it all out there, like the save that he had on the empty net where he dove backwards to save the puck. I mean, look, people have been saying that Brandon Hagel should be the next captain of the Tampa Bay Lightning. I have been a little wary of that because sometimes I feel maybe his emotions get the best of him, but in this playoffs series, absolutely, he deserves to be the next captain of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Like, that is what you want in a captain, and he will not accept anything less of himself. And what you hope is that you know that that begins to permeate in the locker room because I just don't know if it is, and that's not to say the players aren't working hard or they're not playing hard, it's just it it's gotten stale, if that makes sense. It's gotten stale after four consecutive first-round losses. It it is time to make a change. And we'll see what those are, you know, but anywho, congratulations to the Montreal Canadians on their playoff series victory. They deserved it full stop. And for the Tampa Bay Lightning and us fans, it will be another long summer. Wondering what could have been, uh, ultimately dreading when we will see the lightning again in the sense that we know that next season will be a slog because the Atlantic Division is getting tougher and this lightning team is not getting any younger, and the rest of the division is catching up. Um yeah. Uh we're definitely gonna look at some of the positives and negatives of this season in the uh coming days and coming weeks. So just stay tuned. You know, I'll be uh I'll certainly be active just getting out some episodes for you guys and just some easy listening and some fun fan interaction uh as the summer and the offseason kicks off for our Tampa Bay Lightning, who once again have their season ended by the Montreal Canadiens in a round one in game seven of a 2 1 loss. We'll talk soon, guys. See ya.