RALEIGH, N.C. — For now, there is nothing but pain, which might be more formative for the Montreal Canadiens than anything else they experienced through this season and these Stanley Cup Playoffs.
It is the pain of every blocked shot, every hit and every slash now suddenly throbbing uncontrollably, radiating over the deep wound inflicted by a fourth straight humbling loss that ended a dream after 101 games.
The ice won’t make it go away just yet, and that’s not a bad thing.
No one knows more than these Carolina Hurricanes — who pulverized the Canadiens — that this pain is a pathway forward. They suffered it in three Eastern Conference Finals, over which they lost 12 of 13 games in demoralizing fashion to better teams, and it turned them into the punishers they’ve become.
“A lot of years with a lot of pain,” said Jordan Martinook after Friday’s 6-1 win over the Canadiens at Lenovo Center, his 89th playoff game that finally pushed him and the Hurricanes to Round 4.
"We had teams that could’ve got there and just (didn’t do it)… It’s been a crazy journey…"
The Canadiens have only taken a few steps on theirs, with each one of them bringing them hope that the pain they’re feeling takes them to where Carolina has now gone.
But much sooner.
“I don’t know if I have three more years,” said 33-year-old Phillip Danault, who’s under contract for one more season with the Canadiens. “I hope it’s not that long for us, but we’re a different team. Sometimes it’s just a matter of who you play against. The maturity you build, the brand you have, it helps you find ways against certain teams.
“They found their way against us, and they deserved it. They work harder every single year.”
That’s what it takes; a deeper investment each time, with more sacrifices leading to more pain until what you have is a team that can assert its will over any opponent and inch that much closer to the ultimate pleasure.
The Hurricanes showed some rust in Game 1, a 6-2 loss that followed an 11-day break between rounds. But from Game 2 on, the Hurricanes asserted their will in one of the most dominant four-game performances in the history of the playoffs.
In those four wins, they outscored the Canadiens 15-4, outshot them 139-67, and you can imagine how lopsided the rest of the metrics were just based on those two.
“I think the one thing we kind of learned is they really played to their identity, and they have a lot of details inside of that, and I think for us it’s to keep trying to play to our identity but elevate the details a little bit,” said Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis. “The details just come with maturity and experience. It’s a really good team, a lot of experience. You’ve got to give credit to how well they played. They made it really hard on us, and we’re going to learn from a lot of that stuff.”
That’s what the Hurricanes did after getting waxed 4-0 by the Boston Bruins in the 2019 ECF and then sliced and diced 4-0 and 4-1 in 2023 and 2025, respectively, by the buzzsaw Florida Panthers.
The pain felt insurmountable to them each time, but it eventually pushed them to a level perhaps not even the Vegas Golden Knights will be able to contend with in the Stanley Cup Final.
A series against this galvanized, hardened Hurricanes team (which is now 12-1 in these playoffs) will present a challenge to the Golden Knights unlike any other they’ve faced so far.
Meanwhile, the Canadiens will be licking their wounds, thinking about what could’ve been after wins over the 106-point Tampa Bay Lightning and 109-point Buffalo Sabres got them to this stage before a loss to the 113-point Hurricanes made them realize how far they still have to go.
“It wasn’t easy this year to get into the position we were in, being one of the top three teams (left standing) or whatever, but it’s going to be even harder next year,” said formidable Canadiens sophomore Lane Hutson.
He’s only 22, but wise beyond his years, for Hutson knows the Sabres are nearly just as young as his team and just as motivated by the pain they endured at the Canadiens’ hands this spring.
He knows that the Ottawa Senators, who lost in four games to the Hurricanes in Round 1, are also on the rise; that the Panthers, who were injury-riddled after three straight trips to the Final and two consecutive Cups, will be back; that the Lightning still have a championship-calibre team.
And that’s just what the Canadiens will have to contend with in the Atlantic Division. Never mind the Ducks, the Mammoth, and the San Jose Sharks, who are all on the rise and looking at the Canadiens as an example of how fast a rebuilding team can ascend.
“These teams are hungry, they’re coming, they see what we’re doing and we’re not sneaking up on anyone necessarily,” said Hutson. “We feel like expectations are we’re supposed to be one of these teams, so we’ve just gotta bring it right from the start and bring a playoff mentality to training camp.”
There will be some healing to do before then, but first some pain to process.
“It should put gas on the fire. It should make them feel hungry,” said St. Louis.
He knows, because he experienced it before winning the Cup as a player in 2004.
“I remember my first experience losing in the second round of the playoffs,” St. Louis said. “I was so upset on the bus because I couldn’t believe I had to go through another 82 games before I get to have this fun. So, I think that when you taste that, it makes you hungrier, because we’ve had a lot of fun. There’s been waves and stuff, but it’s been unbelievable to go through it.”
At the end of it, the pain resonates before it dissipates.
It’s not something you welcome, but it’s something you need to go through.
“You learn more when you’re losing than winning, that’s for sure,” said a desolate Mike Matheson. “It’s hard to see that right now and look past how disappointing it is right now. But obviously, in the coming weeks, once you get back to your summer training, that motivation should be pretty high.”
It was for the Hurricanes, who stormed their way through their first 90 games before decimating the Canadiens.
Their pain pushed them to the next level, and they may be less than two weeks from finally shedding the remnants of it.
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