BROSSARD - Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said that his team is OK playing the role of the villain.
The Montreal Canadiens are not taking the bait.
Led by scrappy forward Brandon Hagel, the Lightning earned a physical 3-2 overtime win in Game 2 on Wednesday to even the first-round series between the Atlantic Division teams at 1-1.
But the Canadiens have no intention of backing down.
"Did we look intimidated? I don't think so," Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis said Thursday as the series shifted to Montreal. "If they want to play that way, we鈥檙e able to play that way. We鈥檙e equipped for that."
While Cooper might see the Lightning as the bad guys, defenceman Arber Xhekaj says the Canadiens can get just as nasty.
"If they want to think that, it's OK," Xhekaj said. "We're here, we're ready for whatever they have for us."
"Maybe they鈥檙e frustrated and trying to throw us off our game," he added. "We have big bodies, we have guys who like to play a rough role."
The Canadiens are the youngest team in the NHL playoffs, and their top players are all the smaller side. But they aren鈥檛 backing down from the Lightning, who are on average four years older and three pounds heavier.
"When they get into it, we feed into that stuff, we like that stuff,鈥 said Canadiens defenceman Kaiden Guhle. "We鈥檙e young guys and we鈥檙e not scared to get into the physical stuff."
"We鈥檙e OK with it,鈥 Xhekaj added. "We love it. We laugh about it after the game. It鈥檚 a brotherhood thing to stick together out there, we don鈥檛 mind the rough stuff at all."
Xhekaj is tied for the Canadiens lead with nine hits despite logging the second-fewest minutes on the team through two games.聽
"It's great, it's right into my game, that鈥檚 the type of game I like to play" said Xhekaj. "It鈥檚 definitely brought out a good side to my game."
CANADIENS LOOKING TO BOUNCE BACK
After playing even through the first five and a half periods of the series, the Canadiens faltered after Nikita Kucherov tied the game at 2-2 in the third period. In overtime, Montreal failed to register a shot on goal before Tampa's J.J. Moser won it 12:48 into the extra frame.
"We lost our way," said St. Louis. 'We weren't giving them much until 10 minutes left in the third and overtime. We controlled a lot of that game."
Montreal's Cole Caufield, who had 51 goals in the regular season, has yet to score in the playoffs. The team's top line of Caufield, Nick Suzuki, and Juraj Slafkovsky has yet to score at even strength in the series.
"I think we expect more of ourselves," Caufield said. "That's what we're going to do. We're going to build off the energy of playing here. It's back to 0-0 and keeping that same mentality going forward."
St. Louis, now a coach, used to be the player that opponents keyed on defensively and says mentality is a big part of breaking through it.
"(It can get frustrating) if you let it," he said. "If you embark in it, if you let your brain convince you, your thoughts become your actions. You need to be strong mentally."
Canadiens Kirby Dach forward came under fan criticism for failing to cover Moser on the Lightning's Game 2-winning goal and his Instagram is no longer active. St. Louis says he wishes his players didn't have social media, especially in the Montreal market.
鈥淲e need all hands on deck, fans included,鈥 said St. Louis of the criticism towards Dach. "We鈥檙e not perfect. A guy鈥檚 going to make a mistake but I can tell you, we have good intentions out there. I would say to stick together."
The sold-out Bell Centre is bound to be wild on Friday night.
"We should feed off the energy," St. Louis said. "We know the fans are behind us and we love the support. Looking forward to it."
Caufield says he can already feel the energy ahead of Montreal's home debut of these playoffs
"You don鈥檛 get tired, it鈥檚 crazy. It鈥檚 like there鈥檚 another body out there," he said. "It鈥檚 a pretty special place to play and they can swing the momentum in a game."
This report by 好色tvwas first published April 23, 2026.
