Game 6 between the Canadien de Montréal and the Lightning de Tampa Bay was still tied 0-0 in overtime Friday as La Presse journalist Simon-Olivier Lorange covered the action live. The matchup kept Montreal on edge, with Charle-Édouard D’Astous set to get his first taste of the playoff atmosphere at the Centre Bell a week later than hoped.
That tension fit a day built around hockey in every direction. Friday morning, Juraj Slafkovský showed up at his locker with a beard that looked unusually full for a 22-year-old, while the NHL also announced a $5000 fine for Mikko Rantanen for a violent stick strike on Kirill Kaprizov in Game 6 of the first-round Western Conference series. Earlier in the week, Jon Cooper, Dan Muse and Lindy Ruff were named finalists for the Jack Adams Trophy, awarded each year to the NHL coach of the year.
There was no shortage of scoreboard noise away from Montreal either. On Thursday, Leo Carlsson, Troy Terry and Chris Kreider each had one goal and two assists in Anaheim's 5-2 win over Edmonton in Game 6, and Quinn Hughes scored two goals and added one assist as Minnesota beat Dallas 5-2 to win its first series in 11 years. The Wild's breakthrough and Minnesota's result were part of the same crowded playoff slate that kept the Canadiens' series from standing alone.
For Montreal, the live game remained the main event, but the broader picture only sharpened the stakes around it. One line from the night captured the mood around the matchup: the Canadiens’ depth was said to be stronger than Tampa Bay's, while the Lightning were still viewed as a veteran club that knows how to handle this stage. The question now is whether Montreal's pace and depth can finally match that experience when the game moves beyond overtime.
