Canadiens make unwanted history in Game 7 vs. Lightning

There is only one Canadian-based National Hockey League team that is still alive in the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs, and it’s the Montreal Canadiens, who are deadlocked at three wins apiece against the Atlantic Division rival Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinal.

The Canadiens had a chance to eliminate the Lightning in Game 6 on Friday at Bell Centre, but instead, Lightning forward Gage Goncalves scored the only tally of the game midway through overtime, breaking a scoreless tie to give the Lightning the win and set up a decisive, winner-take-all Game 7 in Tampa Bay.

While the good news for the Canadiens is that they entered the first intermission with a 1-0 lead thanks to a deflection goal from captain Nick Suzuki, the bad news for them is that during the second period, they failed to register a single shot on goal. And in doing so, they made some unfortunate team history.

It’s the first time in the history of the Canadiens, who have now officially been around for 117 years, that they managed to not get a single shot during a period of a playoff game. Sportsnet’s Stats on X, formerly known as Twitter, updated fans with the following information:

“Canadiens register 0 shots on goal in a period for the first time in franchise postseason history, per NHLPR,” Sportsnet Stats wrote. 

This is the first matchup in the postseason between the Lightning and the Canadiens since the 2021 Stanley Cup Final, a series that the Lightning won in five games. Whoever wins Game 7 will have a date with the Buffalo Sabres, a series that is scheduled to begin later this week in Buffalo.

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