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The Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning will meet in the postseason for the first time since 2021 and this matchup will come under much different circumstances. Game 1 in the first-round series is set for Sunday at Tampa, Fla. Holding the Atlantic Division’s second spot, the Lightning clinched home-ice advantage Tuesday night when the third-place Canadiens lost 4-2 in their regular-season finale against the Philadelphia Flyers. Tampa Bay right winger Nikita Kucherov produced 130 points (44 goals, 86 assists) in 76 games, falling eight short of Art Ross Trophy winner Connor McDavid, who produced 138 points while playing in all 82 matches for the Edmonton Oilers. In a season that may produce a second Vezina Trophy, goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy

The Colorado Avalanche are prohibitive favorites in their first round Western Conference Stanley Cup Playoff series against the Los Angeles Kings, which begins with Game 1 on Sunday at Denver. The Avalanche (55-16-11, 121 points) won the Presidents’ Trophy as the team with the best regular-season record. They also led all teams with 302 goals and have a gallery of stars led by NHL-leading goal scorer Nathan MacKinnon, who tallied 53 times on the season and finished with 127 points. Colorado’s Martin Necas reached 100 points (38 goals, 62 assists), while defenseman Cale Makar, a two-time Norris Trophy winner, had 20 goals with 59 assists. Colorado’s calling card is a relentless attack with speed and skill. “We’ve always been a

Although the Celtics and Philadelphia 76ers met four times during the regular season, each team will have a different look Sunday afternoon when they meet in Boston for Game 1 of their Eastern Conference first-round series. Boston and Philadelphia split their four games in the regular season, but three of those were played before mid-November. The seventh-seeded 76ers didn’t play the second-seeded Celtics after Jayson Tatum returned from a ruptured Achilles, and the Boston didn’t face Philadelphia with Paul George in the lineup. George was injured when the season began and then missed games in February and part of March after he was suspended 25 games for violating the NBA’s anti-drug policy. Tatum averaged 21.8 points, 10.0 rebounds and 5.3

Ottawa opens its playoff run on the road Saturday night at Lenovo Center, and this is not an easy first draw. Carolina gets home ice, carries the stronger market respect, and comes in priced like the more complete team. That part is not surprising. The Hurricanes usually control games with structure, pressure, and territorial play, especially at home, and that tends to show up right away in playoff series. Still, this opener is not quite as simple as laying the favorite and moving on. Ottawa has enough pace and enough offensive push to make Carolina work for clean control, and that matters in Game 1. The Senators are the kind of underdog that can look outmatched for stretches and still