The Montreal Canadiens continue their playoff run in Carolina against the Hurricanes on Thursday night. It has not been an easy road to get to this point, as they have gone to Game 7 in each of their first two series of these Stanley Cup Playoffs but emerged victorious over the Lightning and the Sabres.
They are set to play a Hurricanes team that has had a much different path to this point, as they have played the minimum number of games after sweeps of their first two opponents, the Ottawa Senators and the Philadelphia Flyers. The Hurricanes though, are set to play a Canadiens team that they have not been able to beat this season and have been outscored 15-8.
When looking ahead to Game 1, these are four Montreal Canadiens players worth watching against the Hurricanes as they were some of the big reasons for the regular season wins.
Nick Suzuki
The Canadiens are going to need to be led by their captain, Nick Suzuki, and he was excellent in the regular season against Carolina. In the three games, Suzuki had three goals and two assists with a +/- of +7.
In the playoffs this season, Suzuki has been one of the more consistent producers for the Canadiens, averaging nearly a point per game with four goals and nine assists through 14 games. He has been especially productive on the power play, with six of his nine assists occurring with the man advantage.
Trying to hand a team their first loss in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and doing it on the road, is no easy task, and the pressure falls a lot on Suzuki as the captain to lead this team.
Cole Caufield
As good as Suzuki has been, Cole Caufield has really struggled to find himself in these playoffs. He finished the regular season with over 51 goals and was second in the league in that category, but in the playoffs has only four goals, and only one was in 5v5 situations.
If there is a silver lining for Caufield is that three of those goals were in the last five games he played against the Sabres. This could be a sign of him starting to get back into form, and he is now set to play a Hurricanes team that he had a lot of success against during the regular season, with three goals and two assists.
It is pretty impressive that the Canadiens have been able to get to this point without Caufield being very productive, and it certainly speaks to the depth the team has, but to get past the Hurricanes, they are going to need Mr. Saturday Night to bounce back and play as he did in the regular season.
Lane Hutson
Lane Hutson is one of the players who has been a key reason for the Canadiens being able to make this deep run in the playoffs. Early in the playoffs, he had to really carry this group until Noah Dobson was able to return in Game 7 against the Lightning.
He did that and more as he has had 14 points through 14 games while leading all skaters in average time on ice at 26:01 per game.
Hutson will need to continue that strong play in this series, and as has been the case for the other players on this list, he was very good against Carolina in the regular season. He would finish the regular season with four points and a +/- of +7 in those three games against the Hurricanes.
Jakub Dobes
Among the players on this list, there may not be a more crucial player than Jakub Dobes, with the main reason being that the Canadiens don't have any other options. Dobes has started every game of these playoffs but struggled a bit in Game 5 and Game 6 against the Sabres, even being pulled in the third period of Game 6.
However, he bounced back in a big way for Game 7 and stopped 37 of 39 shots he faced with over 71 minutes of ice time.
Dobes was the starting goalie in all three games this season against the Hurricanes, and after allowing five in their first meeting on January 1st, he allowed a combined three goals in the final two games.
The Canadiens' goalie has shown in these playoffs that he can take over games and outplay some of the best at the position, like Andrei Vasilevskiy in the first series. If he can continue to do that, then the Canadiens could be looking at their first trip to the Stanley Cup Final since 2021.
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