The Montreal Canadiens have already gone through a gauntlet of tough opponents to make it to the Eastern Conference Finals. But the Carolina Hurricanes coasted through the first two rounds of the playoffs, and looked like legitimate favorites to win it all. They have solid scoring ability, and a defense that held their opponents to just 10 goals in eight games.
On Thursday night, the Canadiens defeated the Hurricanes 6-2, leaving the fans at the Lenovo Center stunned silent. The Canadiens took an early 4-1 lead after the first period. Then, in the third, Montreal ensured no comeback would occur after two goals from Juraj Slafkovsky.
It truly was a shock to the system for Carolina, considering they were one of the top defensive teams in the league throughout the regular season (2.88 goals allowed per game). This was a team that had Jaccob Slavin, after all, who is one of the top defenders in the game. Yet at the end of Game 1, Slavin held a shocking -4 plus/minus rating. It certainly didn't help that he was on the ice for three of the first four goals scored by Montreal.
Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind'Amour talked about how poorly the team played in Game 1. When asked about Slavin having a -4 plus/minus rating, Brind'Amour said he's never seen that from his top defenseman in his entire eight-year coaching career.
"He had a tough one. I've never seen that. Eight years," said Brind'Amour, h/t The Athletic's Chris Johnston.
Jaccob Slavin had no answer for Canadiens offense, putting up one of his worst performances in his career
Brind'Amour belives that Slavin will bounce back in this series. Still, with Game 1 fresh in the minds of everyone, it's hard to look past the bad outing.
In these playoffs, Slavin did have plus/minus ratings in the negative, both -1 in Games 2 and 3 in their first round series against the Ottawa Senators. It's never ideal to be in negative territory, but being a -4 is just unsightly.
As ESPN's Greg Wyshynski points out in his article on Slavin's performance, the -4 rating in Game 1 against the Canadiens is the worst in his entire playoff career. In terms of all-time games, including the regular season, this was just his second having a plus/minus worse than -3.
The Canadiens can take pride in not only did they get the dominant victory, but that they can take solace in the fact that they made one of the top defensemen in the entire league look bad.
For Montreal to have a solid chance of advancing to the Stanley Cup Final, they needed their top stars to score on even strength. Luckily for them, they had Slafkovsky score two goals in the third period, while Cole Caufield's goal in the first period tied the game at 1-1. Plus, having the likes of Phillip Danault, Alexandre Texier, and Ivan Demidov all to produce offensively in these playoffs, and you can see just how dangerous the offense can be against any defense.
Could the offense continue to give Slavin and Carolina's defense trouble for the rest of the series? It sure is possible. However, the Canadiens certainly showed the Hurricanes that they are far from an easy out in these playoffs.
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