After shellacking the Carolina Hurricanes 6-2 in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final — the most satisfying win of the playoffs — the Montreal Canadiens knew they’d have to show their opponent a lot more respect Game 2 on Saturday. The team has  been underestimated all playoffs, and the reason is simple. They’re not supposed to be this good already.

Game 2 was tight throughout with the Hurricanes eventually winning in overtime, 3-2.

Wilde Horses

In the annals of great hockey, this wasn’t. In fact, this was as low-event as a game can get. After 30 minutes, a look at the advanced stats showed most lines and defensive pairings were either 100 per cent or zero per cent. There were mostly round numbers because nothing was happening.

Even though the Canadiens generated very little, the theme of the game has to be that they were not overmatched or intimidated. The Canadiens skated with Carolina without issue. The top line was Phillip Danault’s trio.

Danault continued his outstanding playoff as the architect of both Montreal goals. In the first period, he slid a gorgeous pass over to Josh Anderson, who redirected the puck to the top shelf for his fourth goal of the post-season. In the third, Danault carried the puck to Carolina net where Anderson got the final whack for 2-2.

Defensive work was more noteworthy for Montreal. The Hurricanes are known for swarming on offence, but Montreal kept the Hurricanes to the outside circling. Carolina didn’t create much north-south, as evidenced by only 24 shots over 60 minutes.

Both Buffalo and Tampa Bay did far more to breakdown the Canadiens defence than Carolina has in the past two games. Montreal looks to have Carolina’s ideas sorted. However, they’ll have to get back to some better work on offence back in Montreal.

Wilde Goats 

This one was not pretty. That’s not meant in the colloquial sense. It actually wasn’t pretty. Halfway through the contest, the shots were 9-3 for the Hurricanes.

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Head coach Rod Brind’Amour decided that he didn’t want to play it wide open with the talented Canadiens. That doesn’t say much for the favourites from the east to think they couldn’t play anything close to exciting hockey against upstart Montreal.

The Hurricanes switched from Aho’s line against Suzuki to Staal’s line. That proved effective. Montreal’s head coach Martin St. Louis will work to get Suzuki away from that match-up in Montreal with last line change.

If this were a regular season game, you would have found something else to do for the evening. It was not a showcase for hockey as a sport.

The overtime winner was scored because the Canadiens didn’t get a puck they had at the Carolina blue line. Oliver Kapanen turned it over and the Canadiens were short at the back as a result. Noah Dobson was trying to complete a change, but had to scramble back and couldn’t make it in time.

The goal might have been the second worst thing that happened, though. Lane Hutson took a hit that hurt his left leg. Hutson remained down for five to 10 seconds and was extremely upset as he skated to the bench. He slammed the gate at the bench in frustration. A player’s reaction says a lot. They know when it’s bad. Hutson’s reaction wasn’t encouraging.

What sticks out most after two games is that the Hurricanes are soft. After the violence of the Lightning series and Sabres series where every play there was a chance to get smashed, this is not big-boy hockey.

Jayden Struble took a penalty for a mild face wash. Jakub Dobes took a penalty for light contact on a forechecker. These moments happened 300 times in the Sabres series without a penalty. If this continues as a manner of officiating, it’s advantage Carolina.

When they were destroyed by the Florida Panthers last season, they were so demoralized physically that you almost wanted to give them a hug. The Panthers were allowed to take physical command without soft penalties against them. The Canadiens will need the same. Carolina is a soft team. The Hurricanes want this series called soft.

Wilde Cards

In his seventh trade during his tenure as general manager, Kent Hughes acquired forward Alex Newhook. Hughes believed Newhook still had upside in his game; the Colorado Avalanche didn’t.

Three years later, Newhook is the leading goal scorer for the Canadiens in these playoffs and a hero in both Game 7s for scoring the winning goal. Meanwhile, the Avalanche haul in the trade is nowhere to be found in the NHL.

Not everyone loved the Newhook trade at the time. Not because critics didn’t think that Newhook had potential, but because they thought Hughes was giving up too much.

The most common error of trade assessment in hockey circles is not understanding the value of a draft pick. Many haven’t done the work to know the success rate considering the number of the pick.

To get Newhook, the Canadiens gave up the 31st and 337th picks, and Gianni Fairbrother. Hughes knew those picks were not high value. The likelihood that a pick taken 31st becomes an NHL player is only 30 per cent. The likelihood for the 37th pick is only 25 per cent. The success rate that picks taken in this range become a star is only three per cent.

That’s the math and Hughes knew it.

Fairbrother is playing in Slovakia. The 31st pick defender Mikhail Gulyayev remains in Russia, where he had one goal this season in Omsk. The 37th pick was right winger Ethan Gauthier who had 12 goals with the Syracuse Crunch this season.

All three players have a long way to go before they score two series winners to propel their club on to the next round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. A safe prediction is that they never vault to the lofty heights of Newhook.

They say the winner of a trade is the team that got the best player. Hughes was a young GM in June of 2023, yet he was already schooling his peers on the analytics of hopeful draft picks against an already proven player.

Hughes saw a player with enormous speed on his skates and someone he was familiar with at Boston College, where Newhook starred. He saw someone who could eventually figure it out. At 25, Newhook is actually younger than Cole Caufield. The pride of Newfoundland and Labrador is still levelling up.

This is how you build a winning hockey team.