Marc Dumont
The Montreal Canadiens put together a very impressive performance against the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday night, earning a 1-0 advantage in the Eastern Conference Final with 6-2 win.
On top of receiving important offensive contributions from depth players, Montreal’s first line also rose to the occasion, as evidenced by a pair of goals from Juraj Slafkovsky. In fact, his insurance goal midway through the third period was his first 5v5 marker of the playoffs. Additionally, sniper Cole Caufield provided a goal at 5v5, just his second of the playoffs.
Unsurprisingly, captain Nick Suzuki assisted on all three goals scored by his linemates.
What A GOAL!
— Montreal Hockey Now (@MTLhockeynow) May 22, 2026
Juraj Slafkovsky makes it 5-2 with a great deke and a perfect finish. #GoHabsGo. pic.twitter.com/RVXTWjovLW
Montreal Canadiens Brass Tacks
It was a particularly critical development for the Canadiens for a bevy of reasons.
The first being that the first line has had a genuinely difficult time not just generating offence, but also producing half-decent underlying numbers in the playoffs.
The Tampa Bay Lightning and Buffalo Sabres both focused on shutting those players down, leading to underwhelming results across the board. Of course, this situation allowed the rest of the Canadiens lineup to stretch its legs, but it certainly wasn’t encouraging when discussing Montreal’s best players.
On Thursday night, not only did they drive the offensive charge, they also controlled the play whenever they were on the ice.
NHL Game Score Impact Card for Montréal Canadiens on 2026-05-21: pic.twitter.com/JDynqq9s8O
— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards) May 22, 2026
The Suzuki trio was the only line that was not outshot by a significant margin, and they managed to create seven high-danger chances at 5v5, while only allowing the Hurricanes to produce two.
Considering the Canadiens barely won the high-quality scoring chance battle, to the tune of 12-11, without Suzuki and Co, they would have been left in the dust, lacking any semblance of an internal solution.
Instead, they head into Game 2 with a surprising advantage, putting all the pressure on the Hurricanes, the clear-cut favourites in the series.
If they can maintain their excellent numbers, while the rest of the lineup continues to provide important secondary and tertiary offence, the Montreal Canadiens will be a very difficult team to beat.
All Montreal Canadiens statistics are 5v5 unless otherwise noted, via Natural Stat Trick.
