Controversial Kucherov gesture toward Dobes is turning heads
Nikita Kucherov gave Jon Cooper one last spark, but Montreal and Jakub Dobes walked out of Tampa with a 2-1 Game 7 win.
That is what makes the clip land even harder now. Kucherov spent the series living in the middle of everything, and his exchange with Dobes at the end of the second period felt like one more push to tilt the night.
Montreal never blinked. The Canadiens stayed composed, handled the noise, and found the answer that mattered most with the season on the line.
The game stayed true to the series. It was tight, tense, and heavy right through the final stretch, with almost no room anywhere on the ice.
Kaiden Guhle opened the scoring, Dominic James tied it on the power play, and Alex Newhook delivered the winner in the third. That is a big-time road response in a Game 7 building.
Dobes deserved a lot of the spotlight too. Kucherov kept trying to get under his skin, but the young goalie looked steady and never let the moment run away from him.
The sequence with Kucherov fit the whole matchup. He was still talking, still staring, still trying to raise the temperature after the horn.
Here is the clip :
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Nikita Kucherov tried to rattle Jakub Dobes, but Montreal got the last word
That is why the clip is going viral. It was not just random chatter. It felt like the clearest snapshot of a series built on friction, edge, and almost no separation between the teams.
Every game before Game 7 was decided by 1 goal, and 4 of the first 6 needed overtime. This matchup was begging for one final flashpoint.
Kucherov has played that role all spring. He finished the regular season with 44 goals and 130 points, and even when the space dried up in this series, he kept dragging himself into the center of it.
Dobes was not an easy target, though. He went 29-10-4 in the regular season with a .901 save percentage, and that calm showed up again when the pressure got loudest.
From Montreal’s side, that is the part to remember. The Canadiens did not answer the chirping with panic. They answered it with structure, poise, and one more goal than Tampa Bay.
And that is why this series may still stand as the best one of the first round. It had overtime drama, 1-goal games, star power, bench tension, and now a Game 7 finish where the Canadiens had the final say.
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MAY 3, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Devon Toews | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Quinn Hughes | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Cale Makar | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Sam Malinski | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Kaiden Guhle | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Nathan MacKinnon | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Martin Necas | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Valeri Nichushkin | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Nick Blankenburg | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jack Drury | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Marcus Foligno | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Ryan Hartman | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Dominic James | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Marcus Johansson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nazem Kadri | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Artturi Lehkonen | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Alex Newhook | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Nick Suzuki | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Vladimir Tarasenko | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Josh Anderson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||