The Montreal Canadiens continue their incredible playoff run in Carolina after winning series against the Tampa Bay Lightning and Buffalo Sabres, with both going seven games. Meanwhile, the Hurricanes were well-rested after consecutive series sweeps and not playing for over a week and a half.
In Game 1, though, the Canadiens looked like the team that had been off as they had more energy and were outskating the Hurricanes. It would be Carolina that would score the first goal, but after that, it was all Montreal, and they would outscore the Hurricanes 5-1 to win the first game of the series.
It was an impressive win for Montreal, and these are some of the takeaways from Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final.
Strange trend follows Montreal from Buffalo series to Game 1 in Carolina
In the series against the Buffalo Sabres, it would be Buffalo that would score the first goal in five of the seven games of that series. However, in three of those games, the score would be tied, or the Canadiens would have the lead before the end of the first period.
Once again, the Canadiens found themselves down a goal very early in the game, in fact, after only 33 seconds, to the Hurricanes. The early deficit on the road didn't seem to matter to Montreal as they would score four straight, including 27 seconds after the Hurricanes' goal, and didn't look back.
It is rather impressive how the Canadiens are able to bounce back so quickly after an early goal in these playoffs. For Martin St. Louis, it is probably a trend he would like to see stop, but for now, it seems to be working.
6 goals from 5 different players highlight the depth the Canadiens have
The Montreal Canadiens' depth was on full display in this game as they had five different players score a goal, with Juraj Slafkovsky being the only one to score two. That second goal came late in the game on an empty net.
What was more impressive than anything was that the first five goals were all in 5v5 situations, which has been a struggle at times this season. The scoring started with Cole Caufield, who had that goal less than 30 seconds after Seth Jarvis.
After Caufield, Phillip Danault would score on a breakaway goal for his second consecutive game with a goal. Alexandre Texier and Ivan Demidov added the third and fourth goals of the first period to push the lead to three.
In the second period, the Canadiens struggled to get many shots on net, with only three the entire period, but in the third, Juraj Slafkovsky put the game out of reach with his two goals.
New defensive pairs work well in Game 1 against the Hurricanes
It seemed like the Canadiens were ready to make a change to their blueline with Arber Xhekaj getting in an extra skate this morning and Jayden Struble not on the ice. However, it wasn't just a simple swap between the two players as Martin St. Louis shuffled his defensive pairs, and the results ended up being great.
Lane Hutson spent most of the night paired with the returning Struble, while Noah Dobson worked alongside Mike Matheson and the third pair was Alexandre Carrier and Kaiden Guhle. Without Xhekaj, the Canadiens lost some physicality but had a much more balanced three pairs with each defenseman playing at least 13 minutes in this game.
One notable stat from this group in Game 1 was their ability to get in shooting lanes and block shots. Collectively, the defensemen stopped 20 shots, and each player had at least three.
Canadiens continue their trend of strong play on the road
The Montreal Canadiens entered the Stanley Cup Playoffs knowing that if they reached the Stanley Cup Final, they would not have home ice advantage in any series. However, Montreal might have known something that no one else did because playing at home against Montreal hasn't been much of an advantage.
In Game 1, they played their ninth road game of these playoffs and are now 7-2 away from the Bell Centre in these playoffs. They haven't been able to find that same success at home, but as long as they continue to play like this on the road, it won't matter much.
The Canadiens will be looking to extend their series lead to two games on Saturday night in Carolina.
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