Shedding early rust, Carolina weaponized a relentless forecheck and superior mental endurance to overwhelm a fatigued Montreal squad, turning a shaky start into a dominant conference final victory.
The Carolina Hurricanes are on to the Stanley Cup Final after defeating the Montreal Canadiens in the Eastern Conference Final in just five games.
After Game 1, things looked like they might be a bit more difficult for the Canes, who swept through each of the first two rounds, but that would be the only game Carolina would lose.
The Hurricanes quickly regrouped and every game, it felt like they snowballed more and more into a dominant force.
By the end of the series, the Hurricanes nearly doubled Montreal in chances, shots and goals at 5v5 and had an expected goals for percentage of nearly 69%, a staggering and drastic total.
Even with losing that first game and the next two going to overtime, it just felt like Montreal was never a serious threat to advance.
So how did Carolina turn the series so drastically?
For one, it can't be overstated how much rust the team had accumulated over that 12 day break between series.
Taylor Hall joked that it felt like he had almost forgotten how to play in Game 1 and it was evident that, overall, the team just wasn't ready for the pace of playoff hockey in that opening game.
But why were the Canes able to flip the series so quickly between Games 1 and the rest of the series?
It started with a tough, but honest video session.
"I think it was just knowing where our lapses were," said Jaccob Slavin. "Video doesn't lie and it was pretty obvious what our lapses were in that game."
The Hurricanes identified the mental and stylistic mistakes they made so often in Game 1 and from there, they just got back to playing their game.
One slight adjustment was cutting down slightly on their aggression through the neutral zone and making sure they were always playing above the puck and if they were aggressive, that there was always support.
They also adjusted the forecheck to better nerf how Montreal was attempting to alleviate pressure with extra support down low and their physicality also really took a toll on the defensemen.
"Our forecheck started taking over and getting used to their breakouts," Hall said. "That was a big thing for us. I think our forecheck really sets the tone for our game overall and then when you forecheck well, I think you take control of shifts and you saw that over the course of the last few games."
"Really it was about making sure we were staying above the puck," Slavin said. "Forechecking the right way and making sure everyone was doing their individual job, but also working as a five-man unit. That's what you saw moving forward. We just really dialed in to what we had to do."
But more than anything, it was just the fact that the Hurricanes were more mentally and physically prepared for the grind than the Habs.
Carolina is an experienced team who has been here time and time again and they know how to go about their business every single game.
"We had that mindset of just right when that puck drops, just go all out and give it your all every second you're on the ice, no breathers, nothing," said Jackson Blake.
Adding onto Montreal's inexperience two, long and emotionally taxing series and it was clear that the Canadiens just didn't have enough left in the tank to go against the Canes' system.
"There's a lot of things, probably, but I think winning Game 2 was big and I think I look at it from the other side," said Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour. "They played a couple of hard series and once you kind of can push the other team to that point where they know it'd be another seven-game series, I think that had a lot to do with it. I think they were a little bit fatigued mentally because of what they had to go through and we were the opposite. I think that really played into our hands because the scores and the way the games were, that's not how this probably would have gone had they been a little fresher. I think that had a lot to do with it."
"I think it's kind of what we're investing in," said Jordan Staal. "We're investing in being physical on their defenseman and playing in their end and wearing them down and really just trying to make them break. I think our starts were unbelievable. They knew it was coming and we still brought it anyway. That's hard to play against and it's frustrating and it's deflating. I thought we did a good job of giving them nothing and when we did, Freddie was there and played unbelievable."
The Hurricanes will take on the Vegas Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup Final starting on Tuesday.
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