About Last Night: Canadiens end positive season with some big questions
The 2025-26 Montreal Canadiens have plenty of positives to hang their hats on. Just not how it ended.
Their season came to a close with a listless 6-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference at Lenovo Center on Friday.
The Canes made easy work of the Habs, scoring three times in the first period on Jakub Dobes.
To add insult to injury, Canes fans chanted Olé, Olé, Olé after the fourth goal and throughout the third period.
Prior to puck drop, the Canes paid tribute to former Canadiens player Claude Lemieux, who died on Thursday.
Lemieux was a player agent, and one of his clients was Frederik Andersen. The Carolina goalie was denied a second straight shutout, but made 23 saves as the Habs finally got over the 20-shot mark for the first time since Game 1.
The Canes scored three times in the first period to put the game effectively out of reach from the jump. Taylor Hall banged home the loose puck for the first, and Habs coach Martin St. Louis challenged that Logan Stankoven interfered with Dobes. The goal stood upon review and the Habs never really recovered.
Stankoven followed up an assist on the first with his ninth goal of the post-season. Then fourth liner Eric Robinson continued to wreak havoc on the Habs with a breakaway goal. The Canadiens were outshot 14-5 in the first period, a repeat of the last three games that went in Carolina’s favour.
All season, the Canadiens were the comeback kids. Against Carolina, the magic ran out. Jackson Blake and Shayne Gostisbehere (on the power play) added to Carolina’s lead in the second period to put the game out of reach.
No mercy pull after 40 minutes for Dobes, who was the Canadiens’ playoff MVP. The only other goal for the Canes the rest of the way was an empty-netter, while Cole Caufield, broke Andersen’s shutout bid, ending Montreal’s 160-plus minute drought in the process. Caufield ended his difficult post-season with six goals.
After winning Game 1, the Canadiens were dominated the rest of the way by the new Prince of Wales Trophy recipients. Likely to the surprise of no one, the Hurricanes set an NHL record for least amount of shots allowed in a five-game series with 89.
The Liveblog commenters were second guessing St. Louis’ decision to stand pat with the lineup, especially keeping Jayden Struble over Arber Xhekaj. According to Hockey Stat Cards, Struble and Lane Hutson were the strongest pairing on the night.
With the Habs out of it after 10 minutes, that meant filling the rest of the Liveblog with offseason questions. The commenters were surprisingly torn about St. Louis being the man to lead the Habs to the promised land, given he just coached the Habs to an Eastern Conference final berth. Was he too stubborn against the Canes?
The commenters also think Xhekaj, as a pending restricted free agent, could make the Habs pay if he ends up being moved. They knew going in the Habs needed a long-term solution at centre on the second line, and that hasn’t changed. Ditto adding grit and balancing out the defence pairings so the team’s best blue-liner isn’t on his off-hand playing with Struble.
Is this the end of the road in Montreal for restricted free agent Kirby Dach? What about Brendan Gallagher, who didn’t even suit up in Rounds 2 and 3? Gone and gone, so say the commenters.
There were also some larger, existential questions, like: why didn’t the Habs’ young core players perform, and will a shake up be necessary to reach the next level? Also, why not try Ivan Demidov with Nick Suzuki next season after the first line floundered in the playoffs?
Here’s what the commenters had to say:
5. That’s the problem with Montreal, TOO MUCH class, be a bully, be mean, kick teams while they’re down!
4. This series has hopefully taught us that we need more grit, heavy punishing checking.
3. We need to get a bit bigger. HuGo know that. Florian will make the team next year. We can trade Newhook.
2. The best news this season, the Canadiens found a No. 1 goalie.
1. OK HuGo … get to work. Lots of holes to improve. We are counting on you.
