Kyle Bukauskas

We had one game seven.

in the opening round, Elliot, and it was on Sunday night in Tampa, and Martin St.

Louis said it was meant to be for his group to play in a Game 7, and it sure felt like maybe it was, in fact, meant to be for Montreal on Sunday.

Four shots on goal in the first, none in the second, five in the third for a grand total of nine.

Also, the amount of goals Colorado scored Sunday.

We'll get to that game in a bit.

Somehow, that was enough for Montreal.

And on the back of 28 saves from rookie Jakub Dobos, the Canadians, the lone Canadian team standing, they knock off the Tampa Bay Lightning and are through to round two.

What was most impressive for you watching that, or maybe most mind-boggling on Sunday?

So I was told just before the game, because obviously I didn't see this, but someone with the Canadians just said, like, you would not believe sitting in their...

banquet room if you want to call it their team hotel because they didn't come to the rink Sunday morning but sitting there the team having lunch he's like you would be amazed of just how relaxed how loose that was the energy around the players leading into this game seven and we've seen it all behind the scenes on the ice you name it like that's kind of how they've carried themselves this whole series they're the youngest team in the playoffs as we've touched on and

this person just said like they it looked like a group of teenagers like away at a hockey tournament just enjoying everything that was were they playing mini sticks in the hotel hallways i sound like it was it was short of mini sticks in the hallways it was like everything else but that um now of course that doesn't guarantee anything um but it again speaks to a like how they very much felt

they belonged and, and could win a game, uh, like the one on Sunday, um, and, and how this group feels about each other.

And so that was one thing going in where you thought, all right, um, you know, a good amount of, of Canadians fans again, traveled down, uh, or were already down there and came to the game.

I have to say like, it's, and it is jarring, uh,

For the longest time, Tampa could not lose at home in the playoffs, and they were almost unbeatable in overtime in the playoffs.

Now, didn't need overtime on Sunday.

But the way that script has flipped over the last few years, and it's no secret or no surprise, it's coincided with now four straight first-round exits in

in a row for the Lightning that, you know, for years, and I've always said and continue to say, I love doing games down here.

I love the building.