Travel nightmare hits Canadiens just hours before decisive Game 7
The Montreal Canadiens are going into a Game 7 in Tampa Bay tonight, and the trip down already feels like a stress test for Martin St-Louis and his group.
Crazy weather in Tampa rerouted the team's plane to Fort Lauderdale on Saturday afternoon, according to Eric Engels. Tampa was under a tornado alert. Then the bus ride rumors started.
Fort Lauderdale to Tampa is roughly 3:45 by road. That's the kind of detail nobody on the team wanted on the calendar with a season hanging on one game.
Engels noted Sarasota sits about an hour from Tampa, leaving open the question of whether the Habs would land closer or grind out the full drive up the Gulf coast.
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Anthony Martineau, who was on a separate flight, posted a clip of his own plane finally touching down in Tampa with the runway streaking past the window. His caption said it bluntly. Tornado.
The series is tied 3-3. Montreal stole Game 5 in Tampa 3-2, then dropped Game 6 at the Bell Centre 0-1 in overtime. Two of the last three games went past regulation.
Game 7 in Tampa with a banged-up Habs blue line
Noah Dobson is listed day-to-day and has not appeared in the series. That's a significant absence for a team relying on Lane Hutson, who has 5 points in 6 playoff games, to drive offense from the back end.
News are positive though, as Dobson should start the game even if he's not 100%.
Up front, Juraj Slafkovsky is leaning on a heavy net-front role with 3 goals in this series, all on the power play. Zachary Bolduc is plus-5 in a checking role. Cole Caufield has 4 points but a -5 rating.
Nick Suzuki has zero goals and 5 assists across the six games. The captain has been a steady setup man without finding the back of the net once. Tonight is when that needs to flip.
Montreal finished the regular season 48-24-10 with 106 points. They went 24-9-8 on the road. They'll need every drop of that road poise after a travel day that turned into chaos.
Does any of this matter once the puck drops? Maybe not. But Game 7s have been lost on smaller margins than tired legs and a missed nap.
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| POLL | ||
MAI 3 | 933 ANSWERS Travel nightmare hits Canadiens just hours before decisive Game 7 Will the Canadiens win Game 7 in Tampa tonight despite the travel nightmare? | ||
| Yes | 730 | 78.2 % |
| No | 203 | 21.8 % |
| LIST OF POLLS | ||
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HIER
16 MAI 2026
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| B | P | PTS | ||
| Rasmus Dahlin | 1 | 4 | 5 | |
| Tage Thompson | 1 | 3 | 4 | |
| Jack Quinn | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Zach Benson | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jake Evans | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jason Zucker | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Ivan Demidov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Konsta Helenius | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Zach Metsa | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Arber Xhekaj | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Bowen Byram | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Cole Caufield | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Lane Hutson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Michael Matheson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ryan McLeod | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Norris | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mattias Samuelsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Anderson | - | - | - | |
| Zachary Bolduc | - | - | - | |
| Alexandre Carrier | - | - | - | |
| STATS COMPLÈTES | ||||