The Montreal Canadiens had a thrilling run, but they ran into a well-rested, well-organized, and, perfectly healthy Carolina Hurricanes team in the final four.

In the coming days, we are likely to hear of the many injuries the Canadiens had after 19 gruelling games in 41 nights.

The Hurricanes are heading to the Stanley Cup final to take on the Vegas Golden Knights after an easy 6-1 win over the Canadiens.

Wilde Horses

Not tonight.

Wilde Goats

Not tonight. It’s a repeat of Game 4. You don’t want to read it. I won’t put you through it. Let’s go straight to a big picture look at the future in the Wilde Cards.

Wilde Cards

They ran into a team who has been on the verge for eight seasons under Rod Brind’Amour. The Hurricanes finally found the foe to stop their underachieving. Carolina had played the minimum games, and they faced a team who had played the maximum games.

The Canadiens entered the playoffs ranked sixth, and had already beaten the fifth and the fourth, before hitting a wall facing the second-ranked team. It’s not a time to lament. It’s a time to celebrate. It’s time to look at the big picture.

For the Canadiens, this is the start of a long road of greatness. This time, they were simply not polished enough. It does take polish in the form of experience. In the Western Conference, the Anaheim Ducks are similar to the Canadiens. They also have a bright future, but, in the end, they also hadn’t learned how to win against a veteran team like Vegas.

The Ducks and the Canadiens, when some of the veteran teams like Carolina and Tampa Bay age out, will be the favourites to win the cup. They’ll be joined by San Jose who didn’t even make the playoffs. Buffalo will be in the future mix as well.

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There’s only one way to learn how to win — to try to in the most difficult environment that can be thrown at a player. Each time they arrive to that moment, it gets a little more familiar. The lesson gets a little closer to being learned.

The Hurricanes will tell you how difficult it is. They were destroyed in five quick games by the Florida Panthers last season. They were destroyed so completely, Brind’Amour was lucky to not be fired for failing yet again.

It doesn’t feel easy to Canadiens fans, but when most of the stars haven’t even entered their prime years, growth in their games, and understanding of how to conquer this task is still very much in front of them.

Even the head coach, for as wonderful as he is, has a learning curve, too. Every player on the Canadiens, even the veterans, don’t have a resume of playoff success.

In fact, the most successful of all the Canadiens in the playoffs are players who earned that success in the COVID-19 year heading to the finals. When one thinks of veterans on the Canadiens, names like Noah Dobson come to mind, but he barely has any history either understanding what it takes in this moment.

Let the maturity gain steam, and the experience teach lessons that serve their purpose when the moment is revisited.

For now, there are aspects of the rebuild that do need some work. Start with a second-line centre. There have to be two strong offensive lines to go far in the playoffs. With just one, all the best neutralizers are Suzuki’s opposition every shift.

The opposite head coach should feel confused that he doesn’t know where to put his attention. When he gives the Suzuki line all of his attention, the second line takes over. When he gives the second line all the attention, the Suzuki line takes over.

The second line is a work in progress. The only sure product is Ivan Demidov who is on his way to star status, but he needs a centre that does two extremely valuable things to bring out the best in Demidov. That centre must transition the puck up ice effectively, gain control of the zone, then create offensive-zone time. He also must have chemistry to find Demidov so there are five-on-five chances.

In these playoffs, Demidov didn’t get enough offensive zone touches. He is far too good a hockey player for that, but when the line spends most of the night in front of its own goalie, this is the script that plays out.

The second major change to the lineup has to be the lack of physicality in it. A Paul Maurice quote always comes to mind when the Panthers head coach was yelling at his team who were winning a playoff game by a large margin.

Maurice was absolutely dressing them down, telling them to stop trying to score goals. It’s a bizarre thing to hear, but he said that they had enough goals. What they needed he said was “keep hammering their defence so by game seven they have nothing left.”

The Canadiens are the team Maurice’s concept is hammering. They are not the team that does the hammering. It’s the Canadiens who wear down.

Josh Anderson was an extremely valuable member of the team in round one as he was absolutely pounding everyone as the first forechecker on a dump-in. He stopped doing that in the second round. It’s assumed that he suffered an injury somewhere along the way.

Arber Xhekaj is a valuable member of the physicality push gong forward, but he needs to harness it more intelligently. He needs to become better at open-ice hits. Xhekaj has it in him, but hasn’t refined it.

His brother Florian hopefully can be a good enough player in other ways to join the NHL squad and start punishing some people. The truth of the matter is by the end the playoffs, the Canadiens weren’t making anyone think twice about being punished in their pursuit of the puck.

Overall, the journey to the Stanley Cup is well ahead of schedule. There is a tremendous amount of cap space to improve the lineup. There are prospects on the way.  To arrive at their destination, they need to be tougher, have a better second line, and gain more experience.

It’s a disappointing moment for the fan base, but the opportunity is wide open for a parade. Enjoy the summer visualizing where you will stand on Sainte-Catherine when the players wave at you. There is every reason to believe that moment is coming.

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