The Carolina Hurricanes entered the 2026 Eastern Conference Final as heavy favorites against the Montreal Canadiens. Many fans were already looking past Montreal, spending the days leading up to the series suggesting an undefeated Hurricanes team might make easy work of a tired Canadiens group who had just gone seven games with the Buffalo Sabres.
Instead, Montreal stunned Carolina with a 6-2 victory in Game 1.
The Canadiens jumped out to a commanding lead, scoring four goals on just ten shots in the first 11:30 of the game. While some pointed to “rust” from Carolina’s long layoff, fans and observers, and the Hurricanes themselves, were quick to push back.
The Hurricanes were probably rusty. They just wouldn’t use it as an excuse, mostly because Montreal deserves credit for their resiliency, which exploited Carolina’s aggressive approach all season. “Habs are a counterpunch team and Carolina’s aggressiveness plays into that,” one fan wrote. “They set you up to come after them…”
In the regular season, Montreal outscored Carolina 15-8. With Thursday’s loss, the record stands at 21-10.
Defensive lapses were glaring. Defenseman Jaccob Slavin was among those most exposed. “Personally, I think I handed them the game,” Slavin said. “And so I’ve got to be better.” Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour said, “He had a tough one. I’ve never seen that… Eight years.”
The Hurricanes win in many ways, but mostly because their style suffocates. But, when a team figures it out and is able to work around the pressure, the Hurricanes get exposed. That happened on Thursday. “Anytime you give up five breakaways in a game, there’s something going on,” Jarvis said. “So, I mean, it’s just tightening up. You can’t give a team like that — any team, really, but a team with that much offensive skill — that many chances and expect not to be burned.”
Jordan Staal added, “Obviously, giving that many freebies, any team’s going to make you pay, especially this time of year, and there wasn’t enough respect for them. … They played a great game and they were ready to roll, and we weren’t.”
The Hurricanes are going to toss Game 1 out and you can expect they’ll be ready to go for Game 2. Still, Montreal just showed the Hurricanes have a weakness and they can be cut, just like any other NHL team. The undefeated streak wasn’t likely to last forever and the Canadiens put an exclamation mark on that note early.
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