Lightning hit with injury scare as veteran leaves game early
Corey Perry is bleeding on the bench and the referees never blew the whistle. The Lightning veteran took a hit, opened up, and the play kept going on Sunday night.
This is Game 4 between Tampa Bay and the Canadiens. Live, in progress. The series is sitting at 2-1 Montreal heading into the night.
Every game in this series has gone to overtime. Three games. Three OT finishes. Two won by Martin St-Louis, one by Jon Cooper.
Now Perry is wearing his own blood and the officials are standing where they were. No arms up. No call.
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The 40-year-old has been around long enough to know what just happened. He took the hit. The cut showed up on his face. The whistle never came.
Tampa fans saw it instantly on the broadcast. Cooper saw it from the bench. The arena saw it on the jumbotron.
That is the kind of missed call that decides games. And in a series where every single one has needed extra hockey to settle, every shift counts double.
Jon Cooper has every right to be furious tonight
Cooper isn't going to let this one go quietly. He shouldn't.
His club is already chasing in this series. Tampa came in 50-26-6 with 106 points and a top-five overall finish. None of that changes the fact that Montreal has the lead.
St-Louis has built something different in Montreal. The Canadiens went 48-24-10 and matched Tampa's point total. They've earned every inch of this series.
But Perry isn't a fourth-line throw-in. He brings $2 million worth of experience, agitation, and net-front presence to a Lightning lineup that needs every bit of it right now.
He was held off the scoresheet through the first three games of this series. Tampa needs more from him in Game 4. Not less.
If he's compromised by an injury the officials waved off? That's a problem that goes way beyond one missed call.
Cooper's group has the rest of this game to figure that out.
The series might already be tilting, and the officials just gave Tampa another reason to feel like nobody's helping them out.
If the Lightning lose this one, the conversation Monday morning won't be about Perry's cut.
It'll be about how a deep, expensive roster let a referee's blind spot push them to the brink.
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APRIL 26, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Nathan MacKinnon | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Brandon Hagel | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Bowen Byram | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Josh Doan | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jake Guentzel | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Peyton Krebs | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Alex Tuch | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Nikita Kucherov | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Gabriel Landeskog | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Janis Jerome Moser | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Zach Benson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Zachary Bolduc | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Cole Caufield | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Joel Edmundson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Cutter Gauthier | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Mikael Granlund | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Kasperi Kapanen | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Sean Kuraly | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Cale Makar | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Beck Malenstyn | 1 | - | 1 | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||
| 2025-2026 NHL STANDINGS | ||||||
| GP | W | L | OL | PTS | ||
| Sabres | 82 | 50 | 23 | 9 | 109 | |
| Lightning | 82 | 50 | 26 | 6 | 106 | |
| Canadiens | 82 | 48 | 24 | 10 | 106 | |
| Bruins | 82 | 45 | 27 | 10 | 100 | |
| Senators | 82 | 44 | 27 | 11 | 99 | |
| Red Wings | 82 | 41 | 31 | 10 | 92 | |
| Panthers | 82 | 40 | 38 | 4 | 84 | |
| Maple Leafs | 82 | 32 | 36 | 14 | 78 | |
| GP | W | L | OL | PTS | ||
| Hurricanes | 82 | 53 | 22 | 7 | 113 | |
| Penguins | 82 | 41 | 25 | 16 | 98 | |
| Flyers | 82 | 43 | 27 | 12 | 98 | |
| Capitals | 82 | 43 | 30 | 9 | 95 | |
| Blue Jackets | 82 | 40 | 30 | 12 | 92 | |
| Islanders | 82 | 43 | 34 | 5 | 91 | |
| Devils | 82 | 42 | 37 | 3 | 87 | |
| Rangers | 82 | 34 | 39 | 9 | 77 | |
| GP | W | L | OL | PTS | ||
| Avalanche | 82 | 55 | 16 | 11 | 121 | |
| Stars | 82 | 50 | 20 | 12 | 112 | |
| Wild | 82 | 46 | 24 | 12 | 104 | |
| Mammoth | 82 | 43 | 33 | 6 | 92 | |
| Blues | 82 | 37 | 33 | 12 | 86 | |
| Predators | 82 | 38 | 34 | 10 | 86 | |
| Jets | 82 | 35 | 35 | 12 | 82 | |
| Blackhawks | 82 | 29 | 39 | 14 | 72 | |
| GP | W | L | OL | PTS | ||
| Golden Knights | 82 | 39 | 26 | 17 | 95 | |
| Oilers | 82 | 41 | 30 | 11 | 93 | |
| Ducks | 82 | 43 | 33 | 6 | 92 | |
| Kings | 82 | 35 | 27 | 20 | 90 | |
| Sharks | 82 | 39 | 35 | 8 | 86 | |
| Kraken | 82 | 34 | 37 | 11 | 79 | |
| Flames | 82 | 34 | 39 | 9 | 77 | |
| Canucks | 82 | 25 | 49 | 8 | 58 | |
COMPLETE STANDINGS | ||||||