RALEIGH – Martin St. Louis made the lengthy stroll down a hallway within the bowels of Lenovo Middle as celebrations continued on the ice and within the stands.
The Montreal Canadiens head coach didn’t search for earlier than turning left into an adjoining workplace.
St. Louis and his crew had simply seen their Stanley Cup aspirations snuffed out by the relentless Carolina Hurricanes.
There was additionally a lot to be pleased with regardless of a painful lesson the peach-fuzzed group hopes will finally assist propel it to the final word purpose.
The emotion, nevertheless, was nonetheless uncooked.
The Canadiens have been once more blitzed early on the way in which to a 6-1 loss that ended their Jap Convention remaining in 5 video games on Friday evening.
Montreal had survived a pair of seven-game collection to advance, and after shocking the rusty Hurricanes with a 6-2 victory within the opener, a veteran, battle-tested roster flexed its muscle tissue with 4 straight wins.
“It ought to put fuel on the fireplace,” St. Louis mentioned of his gamers. “It ought to make them really feel hungry.”
The Canadiens totally broke the chains of a protracted rebuild in 2025-26 after a playoff return final season, ending tied for second within the Atlantic Division with 106 factors earlier than an impressed run this spring.
That didn’t make issues any simpler.
“As shut because it feels, we’re so distant,” Montreal defenceman Lane Hutson mentioned. “A lot extra to do to battle to get to the final word purpose. Even while you win two rounds, you continue to gotta discover one other degree for the following spherical, and hopefully preserve going.”
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The Canadiens received a pair of dramatic Recreation 7s on the street towards the Tampa Bay Lightning and Buffalo Sabres to make the ultimate, however didn’t have a solution towards a Hurricanes roster making their fourth convention remaining look since 2019.
“We’ve discovered lots by way of this course of in failing and advancing,” St. Louis mentioned. “You be taught far more by way of the failures. I do know we’re not shifting on, we’re not going to win the championship, however there’s a whole lot of wins in what we did this yr.
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“I feel it’s gonna assist us to maintain progressing.”
Carolina suffocated Montreal’s assault over the ultimate 4 contests — together with back-to-back 3-2 extra time triumphs and a 4-0 shutout — limiting the NHL’s sixth-best offence within the common season to a paltry 43 mixed pictures in Video games 2, 3 and 4 forward of Friday’s whitewash.
“There’s a whole lot of studying classes while you lose,” Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki mentioned. “They’re a bunch that’s been collectively a very long time, and hopefully we’re having the identical success they do. You gotta be taught by way of these playoff highs and lows. They’ve had their fair proportion of losses within the convention finals.
“You gotta recover from that hump.”
The Canadiens merely ran out of concepts towards a well-drilled and well-rested opponent coming off consecutive sweeps of the Ottawa Senators and Philadelphia Flyers that had them seeing shadows throughout 200 ft of ice.
“We tried a whole lot of various things,” Suzuki added. “They create a whole lot of stress … generally you suppose stress is there, and it’s not and also you lose pucks and throw pucks away. Simply weren’t capable of generate sufficient offence.”
Veteran centre Phillip Danault, one of many few greybeards on the crew after being reacquired from the Los Angeles Kings in December, expects brighter days forward.
“Everyone knows it’s not gonna be straightforward,” he mentioned. “Guys gotta perceive it’s so distinctive to make playoffs, and it’s arduous to win on this league. If you get an opportunity, you gotta go all the way in which.”
St. Louis, who finally grew to become a Corridor of Fame winger, hopes his membership has the identical emotions he skilled following his first journey to the playoffs when Tampa was bounced from the second spherical in 2003.
“I couldn’t imagine I’m gonna must undergo one other 82 video games earlier than I get to have this a lot enjoyable,” he mentioned. “If you style that, it makes you hungry, as a result of we’ve had a whole lot of enjoyable.
“There’s been waves and stuff, nevertheless it’s been unbelievable to undergo it.”
The youngest crew to make the third spherical since Montreal in 1993 — additionally the final time a Canadian crew hoisted hockey’s holy grail — with a mean age of 25.9 years led by Hutson, Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Ivan Demidov and Jakub Dobes ought to have a lot extra probabilities.
However nothing is ever assured.
“You by no means know what number of probabilities you’re going to get (to be) a couple of video games away from the Stanley Cup remaining,” Suzuki mentioned. “The long run is brilliant … hopefully keep collectively for a very long time.
“And do much more profitable.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Might 29, 2026.
© 2026 The Canadian Press