Heading into Tampa Bay Lightning training camp, Max Crozier set a personal goal for himself to make the opening night roster, something he had been chasing for as long as he could remember. The Lightning selected Crozier 120th overall in the 2019 NHL Draft, and since then he’s spent the last few years moving between the AHL and NHL. In January 2024, he made his NHL debut and went on to appear in three postseason games.
Reflecting on his first year with the Crunch, Crozier admitted that an opening night spot in Tampa once felt out of reach — until the 2025-26 season.
“I didn’t think that this was something that was in my path, but they worked with me and got me to a point where I was able to come up,” Crozier said of his time in Syracuse. “I was up and down, up and down, and they were continuously working with me to get me to this point right now. I owe that staff in Syracuse a whole bunch of kudos, because their drive to develop the players and stick with them is really, really key. I think it shows with everyone in this organization.”
Part of the Lightning’s identity this season has been their ability to turn to players from Syracuse who can step into key roles at any moment. That depth carried into the playoffs after Charle-Edouard D’Astous was knocked out of Game 1 by Josh Anderson. Declan Carlile made his NHL postseason debut and filled that spot for Games 2 and 3.
In Game 4, Crozier, who had been sitting in the pressbox just days earlier, stepped in and made an immediate impact, delivering a hit on Montreal’s Juraj Slafkovsky. From there, momentum shifted, and the Lightning battled back from a deficit to get a statement win in regulation that evened the series out.
© David Kirouac-Imagn Images“I think it’s been a physical series, and I just wanted to get into that today,” Crozier said after the win. “It was just a clean, solid check. I was able to time it up right, and it felt good.”
Crozier had appeared in just one game over the past three months following lower-body surgery, and he wanted to make sure he was ready if called upon. After Saturday’s practice, he told assistant coach Dan Hinote he wanted to get hit to help him re-acclimate to the physicality of the series. Hinote had forward Conor Geekie step in and take runs at him. For Crozier, that element of the game has always been part of his identity.
“I think that’s the fun in the game, and that’s why I love it,” he said. “Playing physical just comes naturally for me, and I have fun doing it.”
The Lightning have faced a tight-checking opponent in Montreal, with three of the first four games going into overtime. Crozier’s hit on Slafkovsky gave Tampa Bay a welcomed jolt, in a series with such a small margin for error.
“The hit obviously got our bench out of their seats,” said Lightning coach Jon Cooper. “But you still have to take advantage of that. We score in the last minute of the second, and in the first minute of the third, and all of a sudden the game’s completely changed. It helped take the crowd out of it. But if you’re watching that game, you know that hit probably had a big thing to do with it.”
With the series tied 2-2, the Lightning return home for Game 5 at Benchmark International Arena on Wednesday.