The Montreal Canadiens and Carolina Hurricanes have a historic history, but it features the pre-Hurricanes era of the franchise when they were the Hartford Whalers. Montreal dominated Hartford early in their history, which includes a couple of playoff victories. The Hurricanes have made the series close over the last seven seasons, as they also own a nine-game losing streak over the past three years. The Canadiens last had a winning record in a season against the Hurricanes in 2015-16.
The Hurricanes outscored the Canadiens 12-4 in 2023-24. Their last loss was a shutout on March 30th, 2024. Jordan Staal, Sebastian Aho, and Seth Jarvis scored the goals for Carolina, while Pyotr Kochetkov stopped all 26 shots for the shutout.
Canadiens-Hurricanes/Whalers Playoff History
The Canadiens last playoff series against the Hurricanes was in 2006. They played in the Eastern Conference Quarter-Finals, with the Hurricanes taking the win in six games. The Canadiens started the series with a 6-1 and 6-5 overtime win. However, Carolina rallied for four consecutive one-goal victories for the series win.
Alex Kovalev led the team with seven points in six games, with Sheldon Souray, Michael Ryder, and Chris Higgins finishing behind him. It was the middle of the Cristobal Huet era, and he had a successful sereis with a .929 save percentage. Cam Ward took over the net in the middle of Game 2 and owned a .940 save percentage with a 4-1 record. He stopped 125 of 133 shots. Of course, the Hurricanes would go on to win the Stanley Cup.
The Hurricanes also beat the Canadiens in the 2002 playoffs, in the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals. The Canadiens also held a 2-1 series lead in that series before allowing the Hurricanes to rally with three consecutive wins. The Hurricanes also advanced to the Stanley Cup Finals in this season, but lost to the Detroit Red Wings.
The Canadiens dominated the Whalers in the postseason, as they played five times from 1979 to 1992. Montreal won all five series, winning 19 of 27 games.
Canadiens-Hurricanes Offer Sheet Controversy
The Canadiens and Hurricanes most recent controversy caused some problems between the organizations. Montreal signed Sebastian Aho to a five-year, $42 million offer sheet in 2019, but the Hurricanes matched. It led to Carolina going out of their way to sign Jesper Kotkaniemi to an offer-sheet, which the Canadiens could be thanking them for. It would've put Montreal in a terrible position if they had signed Kotkaniemi to the Hurricanes' offer.