Is this the year the Habs bring the Stanley Cup back to Canada?

Ed. here. We welcome the return of our National Sports (As Long As It's Hockey) Editor, Poor Len Canayen.

Tank youse, Hed. The last Canadian (or Canada-based) team to win the Stanley Cup, emblematic of the championship of the National Hockey League, was the Montréal Canadiens, who brought Lord Stanley's silverware home in 1993. They defeated the Los Angeles Kings in that year's final series. 

Since then, no Canadian team has won the Cup. And no Canadian team has played in the finals since 2021, when the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Habs (for it was them, again) 4 games to 1.

In about 200 minutes, the same two teams will do battle again. in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. They finished the 2025-26 season 2nd (Lightning) and 3rd in the Atlantic Division, behind the surprising Buffalo Sabres by a mere 2 points. Whichever team wins this round will likely meet the Sabres next. 

Who will win tonight? As I point my TV antenna towards Florida, I think of the last match between the Habs and the Bolts in the regular season. It was like the old Henny Youngman joke: I went to the fights the other night and a hockey game broke out! 

Les Glorieux gave as good as they got, and I don't think they're going to be bested in the rough stuff department tonight. I also think the Habs can compete in goal. They have the luxury of two goalies -- the two Jakes -- with save percentages of over.900. TB has only the one. 

As for scoring, Habs are better per the stats after an amazing season. How can anyone stop a power play unit consisting of Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki, Juraj Slafkovsky, Ivan Demidov and Lane Hutson?! The question is defence. 

The loss of Noah Dobson hurts. Alexandre Carrier may be able to play, maybe not. So that puts a lot of pressure on Jayden Struble and Arber Xhekaj. They've improved greatly in the second half of the season, but can they handle 20 minutes per game? It may come to that because coach will be reluctant to give much ice time to David Reinbacher and Adam Engstrom who, IMHO, aren't yet ready for prime time yet. 

I hear you asking for a prediction. My heart tells me Habs in 7, but I wouldn't bet on it! Ed. says some blog posts end suddenly and inconclusively. This is one of them.