'It makes you hungry': Canadiens look to the future after falling to Hurricanes

Montreal Canadiens players join goaltender Jakub Dobes, fourth from left, following Game 5 of the Eastern Conference final in Raleigh, N.C., on Friday, May 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Karl DeBlaker)

RALEIGH — Martin St. Louis made the long walk down a hallway in the bowels of Lenovo Center as celebrations continued on the ice and in the stands.

The Montreal Canadiens head coach didn’t look up before turning left into an adjacent office.

St. Louis and his team had just seen their Stanley Cup aspirations snuffed out by the relentless Carolina Hurricanes.

There was also plenty to be proud of despite a painful lesson the peach-fuzzed group hopes will eventually help propel it to the ultimate goal.

The emotion, however, was still raw.

The Canadiens were again blitzed early on the way to a 6-1 loss that ended their Eastern Conference final in five games on Friday night.

Montreal had survived a pair of seven-game series to advance, and after surprising the rusty Hurricanes with a 6-2 victory in the opener, a veteran, battle-tested roster flexed its muscles with four straight wins.

“It should put gas on the fire,” St. Louis said of his players. “It should make them feel hungry.”

The Canadiens fully broke the chains of a long rebuild in 2025-26 after a playoff return last season, finishing tied for second in the Atlantic Division with 106 points before an inspired run this spring.

That didn’t make things any easier.

“As close as it feels, we’re so far away,” Montreal defenceman Lane Hutson said. “So much more to do to battle to get to the ultimate goal. Even when you win two rounds, you still gotta find another level for the next round, and hopefully keep going.”

The Canadiens won a pair of dramatic Game 7s on the road against the Tampa Bay Lightning and Buffalo Sabres to make the final, but didn’t have an answer against a Hurricanes roster making their fourth conference final appearance since 2019.

“We’ve learned a lot through this process in failing and advancing,” St. Louis said. “You learn way more through the failures. I know we’re not moving on, we’re not going to win the championship, but there’s a lot of wins in what we did this year.

“I think it’s gonna help us to keep progressing.”

Carolina suffocated Montreal’s attack over the final four contests — including back-to-back 3-2 overtime triumphs and a 4-0 shutout — limiting the NHL’s sixth-best offence in the regular season to a paltry 43 combined shots in Games 2, 3 and 4 ahead of Friday’s whitewash.

“There’s a lot of learning lessons when you lose,” Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki said. “They’re a group that’s been together a long time, and hopefully we’re having the same success they do. You gotta learn through these playoff highs and lows. They’ve had their fair share of losses in the conference finals.

“You gotta get over that hump.”

The Canadiens simply ran out of ideas against a well-drilled and well-rested opponent coming off consecutive sweeps of the Ottawa Senators and Philadelphia Flyers that had them seeing shadows across 200 feet of ice.

“We tried a lot of different things,” Suzuki added. “They bring a lot of pressure … sometimes you think pressure is there, and it’s not and you lose pucks and throw pucks away. Just weren’t able to generate enough offence.”

Veteran centre Phillip Danault, one of the few greybeards on the team after being reacquired from the Los Angeles Kings in December, expects brighter days ahead.

“We all know it’s not gonna be easy,” he said. “Guys gotta understand it’s so unique to make playoffs, and it’s hard to win in this league. When you get a chance, you gotta go all the way.”

St. Louis, who eventually became a Hall of Fame winger, hopes his club has the same feelings he experienced following his first trip to the playoffs when Tampa was bounced from the second round in 2003.

“I couldn’t believe I’m gonna have to go through another 82 games before I get to have this much fun,” he said. “When you taste that, it makes you hungry, because we’ve had a lot of fun.

“There’s been waves and stuff, but it’s been unbelievable to go through it.”

The youngest team to make the third round since Montreal in 1993 — also the last time a Canadian team hoisted hockey’s holy grail — with an average age of 25.9 years, led by Hutson, Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Ivan Demidov and Jakub Dobes, should have plenty more chances.

But nothing is ever guaranteed.

“You never know how many chances you’re going to get (to be) a few games away from the Stanley Cup final,” Suzuki said. “The future is bright … hopefully stay together for a long time.

“And do a lot more winning.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 29, 2026.

Joshua Clipperton, The Canadian Press