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Rod Brind’Amour assigns blame after Canadiens end Hurricanes’ unbeaten playoff run
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- Rod Brind’Amour assigns blame after Canadiens end Hurricanes’ unbeaten playoff run
The Montreal Canadiens finally cracked the NHL playoff armor of the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday night, and coach Rod Brind'Amour did not hide from the reality of it.
Montreal stormed into Lenovo Center and delivered a 6-2 win in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final, ending Carolina's perfect 8-0 postseason run and exposing a team that looked unprepared from the opening shift.
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Carolina actually scored first through Seth Jarvis just 33 seconds into the game. From there, everything unraveled. Montreal answered with four goals in the opening 11:32, the fastest four-goal stretch to start a road playoff game in franchise history. Cole Caufield, Phillip Danault, Alexandre Texier and Ivan Demidov cut through Carolina's defensive structure with alarming ease.
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Brind'Amour pointed directly at his group afterward.
"Obviously, it was not our best," Brind'Amour said. "They made some nice plays. You give them credit, they finished. They made plays. But I didn't think we were very sharp, to put it bluntly. Our top guys had a tough night, and that's not gonna work this time of the year.
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"So chalk it up. I think we just tossed this game, to be honest. I hate that this time of year, that's what we gotta do. But there wasn't much to really grab onto there. And I think you get behind early like that, it's tough. But we clearly were not ready for that pace."
Rod Brind’Amour assigns blame after Canadiens end Hurricanes’ unbeaten playoff run
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Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Alexander Nikishin (21) skates after the puck against the Montreal Canadiens during the second period in game one of the Eastern Conferene Final of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Lenovo Center. Mandatory Credit: James Guillory-Imagn Images
That assessment was accurate. Carolina's identity under Brind'Amour depends on pressure, structure and clean puck support. None of it showed up consistently. Montreal beat the Hurricanes' aggressive forecheck with quick exits and direct transition play, creating breakaways and odd-man chances against Frederik Andersen.
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The rust discussion will dominate headlines because Carolina entered the series after an 11-day layoff, the longest between-round break in modern NHL playoff history. Brind'Amour refused to fully lean on that excuse, but he admitted the pace caught his team off guard.
"I'm not gonna give the layoff as an excuse, but we weren't ready to play playoff hockey, and that caught us," Brind'Amour said.
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Carolina Hurricanes were not 'mentally ready' for the Canadiens
For Hurricanes, the concern is not only the loss. It is how badly Carolina's defensive habits collapsed. The Hurricanes built their postseason success on layered coverage and limiting rush chances. Against Montreal, blown assignments and poor reads appeared almost immediately.
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"We weren't mentally ready to play at the level that we had been playing," Brind'Amour said. "And everything was just a little off, and they're a very, very talented team. Obviously, some of them were just blown coverages that I don't know what we were thinking.
"But yeah, that's a tough game because we're out of it 10 minutes in, or down three or whatever. That's a tough hill to climb against a good team."
Meanwhile, Montreal looked battle-tested after surviving consecutive Game 7 wins. Nick Suzuki drove play with three assists, while Jakub Dobes calmly stopped 25 shots. The Canadiens carried momentum into the series, while Carolina looked disconnected.
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Game 2 now becomes critical for a Hurricanes team carrying a troubling 1-13 record in conference final games under Brind'Amour.
