The Habs set their sights on Tampa

The Montreal Canadiens played their final regular season game on Tuesday night, paying a visit to the Philadelphia Flyers, who booked their ticket to the playoffs the night prior. It was a frustrating night for the Habs in general, as they ran into the best version of Samuel Ersson in net, and made some defensive mistakes that led to a 4-2 loss to wrap up their 82-game schedule.

This isn’t the end for the 2025-26 Montreal Canadiens, however, as their own ticket to the playoffs has been booked for some time.

If a whopping 10 shots on goal from Cole Caufield were any indication, it seemed they were a little more focused on him trying to win the Rocket than giving the Tampa Bay Lightning something to play for tonight. The ultimate result of home ice was always in Tampa’s hands with their game tonight, but it did feel like the Habs missed an opportunity to make things interesting ahead of the playoffs.

It was disappointing for them to end their campaign for home-ice advantage, but there’s no way to call this season a disappointment overall. They broke their own record for being the youngest team to make the playoffs, and this time, they’ve done it as a top-three team in the most competitive division in hockey. If they were ahead of schedule as a wild-card team last year, they’re definitely ahead of schedule now, and they’ve arrived at the dance with more firepower than we’ve seen them bring in decades.

They have a 100-point scorer for the first time since the 80s. A 50-goal scorer for the first time since 1990. A defenceman who tied an assist mark set by the legendary Larry Robinson, who established that mark as part of arguably the greatest NHL team ever assembled. That game against Philly was far from their best effort, but it also isn’t indicative of what this team is capable of. Their focus now is to continue proving their doubters wrong in the playoffs.

Tampa is a big challenge, but this team has given everyone reason to believe that they’re not just there to take part.

Click the play button below to listen to your full Bottom Six Minutes, also available wherever you get your podcasts. The schedule for round one of the playoffs is not yet official, but we should be back this Sunday night for game one.