Canadiens Struggles Against Hurricanes Final Reminder of 2021 – Hockey Writers – Montreal Canadiens

After eliminating the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 4 of the 2021 Stanley Cup Final with an overtime victory at the Bell Center, the Montreal Canadiens headed back south for what would eventually be a close decision loss. Despite losing the series 4-1, Game 5 was the Habs’ closest loss of the series. And there were some undeniable positives for a franchise that had just won its first Finals game in nearly 30 years, at least at the time. Knowing what everyone else is doing now, that stars Carey Price and Shea Weber are going to quit soon, those hopes are meaningless in retrospect.

Canadiens Face Clearly Superior Opponent in Canes

That Game 5 was a one-goal 1-0 loss, meaning the Canadiens at least kept it close. However, their inability to find offense represented a team that had no fight left, after fighting tooth and nail three rounds earlier, before facing a superior opponent who could outmatch them in almost every aspect of the game.

Five years later, the Canadiens’ offensive struggles against the Carolina Hurricanes in the 2026 Eastern Conference Final are an eerie reminder of how much gas had expired at that time. They might have exploded with six goals in the first game win. Since then, after catching the Canes flat-footed after two weeks gone in the middle of a one-game series, they have gone 109-43 in three straight losses to move to 3-1 and find themselves in the playoff spot.

The more things change, the more they stay the same, eh?

Of course, two of those losses came in overtime, and, with any reasonable amount of luck, things will at least be tied 2-2 right now. Admittedly, with only one shot in both overtimes (combined), Luck rarely even had a chance to figure into the equation, even if Nick Suzuki had a game on his stick before the extra frame in Game 3 during the split (only to miss the obvious). The Canadiens may not be as lucky to be in the Eastern Conference Final. They deserve their place, but it would take a miracle for them to come back under these conditions, depending on how far the Hurricanes have passed them, and that is only an objective assessment of their game.

However, there are clear differences and differences for improvement between the two series in question, to be clear. Of course, if we think that the Canadiens failed to get past the Hurricanes, they will have failed to get to where they did in 2021. However, the Habs were the youngest team in the NHL to begin 2025-26 and were never realistically expected to reach this level. While few if any expected the team’s 2021 plan to go far, context is important. That team was coming off the best paper since the 1993 Stanley Cup winning team but faded into the playoffs by the skin of its teeth. It was the team’s general manager at the time Marc Bergevin who seemed to assemble, adding last season’s purchases like Josh Anderson, Joel Edmundson, Corey Perry and Tyler Toffoli, to speed up the “reset” after they came unexpectedly last spring season due to the playoff that served as the backbone of the epidemic after the return of the NHL. Stop.

The Canadiens are on a clear path to contention

Considering the departure of Price and Weber, it turned out to be a one-off rather than an active effort to build on anything that is sustainably successful. And to some extent it was always pretty clear that the Western Conference champion Canadiens would have trouble returning to the playoffs the following season once the NHL reorganized its division. In this case, there is a clear way to continue the conflict.

Despite the baseless suggestions the Canadiens didn’t deserve to beat the Lightning or the favored Buffalo Sabers in the first two rounds this spring, those are the teams they played against during the regular season and their seven-game series. Despite their elimination from play the last few games, the Habs continue to get better with each passing day. Their window should already be open, while those of Atlantic Division-rivals the Lightning and Toronto Maple Leafs (and perhaps the non-playing but admittedly injured Florida Panthers) appear to be closing.

Maybe that’s not fair to the Lightning who scored 106 points this past regular season. However, while on the roster, star defenseman Victor Hedman, now 35, was a shadow of his former self, and 33-year-old Hart Memorial Trophy candidate Nikita Kucherov still has one year under contract. With an empty farm system, their recent back-to-back Stanley Cups, however, the Lightning should be jealous of the Canadiens who also finished with the same 106 points, as they have the longest-term infrastructure in place.

All this, Nyazi is no longer in the same conversation with a team like Nkanyamba. The Canadiens don’t seem like they’re there yet, but, after winning five straight over them, including Game 1, dating back to the final game of the 2024-25 regular season, it seems silly to suggest they won’t be quick… or count out completely in Game 5 on Friday night. Through that lens, three straight wins, after sweeping a three-game regular-season series, needed to advance here seems less than a Herculean task.

That’s another big difference. In 2021, the Canadiens faced a four-game winning streak against the reigning Stanley Cup-champion Lightning after falling behind 3-0 in the finals. That seemed impossible. Three wins in a row for the Hurricanes, who have a history of choking in these situations, seems a little manageable. And, hey, the Habs have at least traded up a few times in the past, most recently in 2021 in the first round, too.

It was 3-1!

Remember, it was 3-1. Their rivals back then also had a long history of stifling in those situations. Everything fits.

Canadians can do this. Whether they get this or not… that remains to be seen. If they don’t, it’s just the end of one long unpredictable game of many more to come.

Some thought is in order. The Canadiens have come a long way since falling to last place in 2022. If these last few games are any indication, it still has a long way to go. However, for a team like the Hurricanes, who reached Round 3 in 2019 after nine years without playoff hockey, and failed to get a big result in that time or after kicking two cans before this one, this looks like the end of the next eight years under head coach Rod Brind’Amour. Good for them. However, needing three tries to win one game at this stage (2025) is further proof that the Habs are ahead of schedule.

… Also, as Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said after each series victory so far, they are not done yet. They have one more game left (at least).