Faceoff circle struggles hinder Lightning in latest home playoff loss
Success in the faceoff circle has been far from determinative of the Lightning's fate.
Tampa Bay accumulated 106 regular-season points, tied for fifth most in the NHL, despite finishing the season ranked 28th in faceoff win percentage.
Tampa Bay opened the playoffs with a loss in which they won only 39% of faceoffs before rebounding to post a 52% win percentage in a Game 2 victory. They lost Game 3 in Montreal despite winning 54% of faceoffs. In their Game 4 comeback, they needed to win only 35% to stun the Canadiens faithful.
The correlation between winning in the faceoff circle and winning games, at least for this year's Lightning team, has been hard to establish.
But in Wednesday night's 3-2 loss that put them on the brink of elimination, the Lightning's 34% faceoff win percentage was a clear hindrance.
"Possession's huge. As you see in this series, there's not a lot of room out there, so starting with the puck is massive," Lightning forward Brayden Point said postgame.
"Tonight was a rough night in the (faceoff) circle."
Forward Dominic James lost all eight of the faceoffs he took, while Point managed to win only 45% of his. Forward Yanni Gourde won only 40%.
Meanwhile, Montreal's best faceoff takers were dominant. Forwards Jake Evans and Nick Suzuki, who each took at least 12 faceoffs, won 86% and 75% of them, respectively.
Part of the reason for the Lightning's struggles was the absence of forward Nick Paul, who missed Game 5 with an illness.
In the series' previous four games, Paul won 66% of his faceoffs, the best on the team by more than 10%. Paul also was Tampa Bay's most reliable faceoff participant in the regular season, winning 54%. Connor Geekie made his second appearance of the postseason in Paul's place, but took only one faceoff.
Lightning coach Jon Cooper said he didn't know Paul would miss Wednesday's game until an hour before puck drop, but he downplayed the impact of Paul's absence.
"That was a little unexpected, but, again, that didn't (factor in)," Cooper said.
Gallagher gets Montreal started
Looking for a boost after a deflating Game 4 loss, Canadiens coach Marty St. Louis turned to Brendan Gallagher, a 14-year NHL veteran who has played his entire career with Montreal.
Only three minutes into the game, Gallagher, who was a healthy scratch in the series' previous four games, rebounded a bouncing puck and scored to give the Canadiens an early lead.
"Right where he scored his goal, that's where he's going to go, and I think it came (to a) time in the series where I feel like we probably needed a little more of that," St. Louis said.
"Really happy the way he's handled everything and not surprised (by) how he did tonight."
Said Gallagher: "When your number's called, you just want to make sure that you're accountable to your teammates and get the job done as well."
Tough night for the Vezina finalist
For the fifth time in his career Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy is a Vezina Trophy finalist. But even Vezina finalists have bad nights.
Early in the third period, a wrister shot from Alexandre Texier went off of Vasilevskiy's glove and into the net for what ultimately was the winning goal.
Cooper defended Vasilevskiy postgame and took issue with failures changing and defending that led to Texier's opportunity.
"It stems way before that," he said of the goal. "All (Vasilevskiy) does is bail us out of those ... sometimes he doesn't.
"It wasn't like (Vasilevskiy) got beat. He had it, it just took a Montreal bounce."
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This story was originally published April 30, 2026 at 12:36 AM.