The Habs had a solid playoff run overall, adding 19 games to their 2025-26, hardly an insignificant amount. What was learned through those three rounds? Our writers provide their playoff takeaways.
Terry Costaris: The Montreal Canadiens exceeded all expectations. I was hoping that, at best, they would win a round of playoff hockey. They won two against exceptionally good opponents.
Hot take time:
As much as I love this massive turnaround in such a short period of time, I’m also a bit worried. I wish that the Montreal Canadiens had one more year of bottom-dwelling. It would certainly have secured some additional premium draft picks which most certainly would have guaranteed at least one Stanley Cup over the next decade.
I’m not saying that the Habs won’t pull this off but two more super high-end prospects would seal the deal. Yes, I know more reinforcements are coming but one more year of suffering would have absolutely sealed things.
Not so hot take but most definitely in need of mentioning time:
The need for a quality second line centre remains a major issue. However, the solution may come from within in the next few years. The problem is that Montreal’s incredibly fast ascent is putting pressure on management, due to high fan and media expectations, to find an immediate solution which could hamper its long-term plans of producing a consistently competitive team. You have to give to get and the Canadiens will not acquire a young, quality second-line centre without giving away some valuable quality pieces.
Third, Montreal’s defence concerns me. If these playoffs have shown management anything, it’s that big, beefy, mean, and mobile defences are essential ingredients to winning trench warfare-style matches. Referees throw away their whistles. The Canadiens are deficient in this category.
And finally, my heart goes out to Brendan Gallagher, the heart and soul of this organization. I understand management’s reasoning but as a fan, I could never do what they did. Professional sports are incredibly cutthroat. I wish him nothing but the best wherever he lands and will be quite upset if he does not finish his career with a one-day contract. He’s one of the grittiest Habs I’ve ever seen in my lifetime. I will miss him.
Allan Katz: The Habs have improved significantly every year of the rebuild. Teams never maintain this. It is statistically improbable and my concern is that they might take a small drop next season as they start loading up for their dynastic potential. It is hard to imagine Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki surpassing their incredible seasons. Ivan Demidov could go the Lane Hutson route and improve in his sophomore season, but he also could struggle in the manner of Juraj Slafkovsky and take a number of years to realize his potential. Is Jakub Dobes/Jacob Fowler the right tandem? Will the newcomers in potentially massive trades go the Kirby Dach, Zach Bolduc, or Alex Newhook route and struggle in their first seasons (or more)?. Will Coach St. Louis upgrade the team’s defensive system to rise to the next level?
Will the cup of each of these questions be half-full or half-empty? The previous paragraph is a half-empty series of questions. Here’s the half-full outlook.
The Habs almost certainly will improve next year. They are so young and could only improve. With Slafkovsky on the edge of superstardom, Caufield and Suzuki should easily match or surpass this year’s totals. You can see a sandpaper-styled Demidov combining his skills with 10 more pounds of muscle and snarl. Dobes and Fowler could easily split guarding the nets with a better defence and produce almost Vezina-style seasons. Matthew Knies will be a perfect addition to the team as will Vinnie Trocheck who should be the perfect placeholder while the prospects develop. Coach St. Louis will have a full offseason to keep growing his innate coaching talent.
Next season is going to be fun.
Brian La Rose: One of the biggest concerns I had going into the playoffs was goaltending. Jakub Dobes certainly finished the regular season strong but the postseason is another animal. Basically back-to-back nights for as long as it lasts and unlike the regular season, you’re not giving the backup a spot start. Could he handle the pressure and the frequency of games at a level he hadn’t seen before? The answer certainly looks like yes. True, there were a few clunkers in there but on the whole, he played quite well. The contract they signed him to last offseason was a signal that they weren’t sure he was going to be part of their long-term plans. I think he is now, even if they’re not sure if he’s the 1A or 1B down the road. On a related takeaway, they learned that they should probably lift the interim tag off goalie coach Marco Marciano and make him the full-time goalie coach.
The other takeaway is more on the team front, specifically the defence. Boy, do they have a long way to go still to get to a top level. Yes, the hope is that the younger players have some room to grow and that David Reinbacher (and maybe Adam Engstrom) can play their way into roles in the somewhat near future but that alone isn’t going to elevate the back end to a contender-like level. They took a big swing last summer with Noah Dobson (his injury didn’t help these playoffs) but he’s not a shutdown guy. It feels like they need that now, someone who can help stop the bleeding when the opposition is coming at the Canadiens in droves, help kill a key penalty, and clear the puck under pressure. Those were all elements that were lacking at least at times in the postseason and will need to be shored up if they want to become a big threat in the East.
Kevin Leveille: At the onset of these playoffs, most Habs fans and media agreed that the team was not a finished product and this playoff was to further evaluate what the team had on its roster and what it needed. A seven-game series against the Lightning resulting in a loss was deemed as acceptable. Instead, we were treated to a run further than expected and this has changed the discourse around the team for some.
However, the harsh reality of the team’s demise in the Eastern Conference Final should serve as a reality check that a shift in expectation is a mistake. As fun as this run was, the team remains in a favourable cap position with important holes to fill on their roster. They won’t get that kind of goaltending yearly, and if the goal is to aspire to reach this type of run more than once per decade, they should be cautious about their next moves.
Should the right player become available a la Dobson, they should be as aggressive as necessary to go get that player. But being aggressive in pursuing the wrong player because expectations have shifted would be a colossal mistake that could ultimately ruin what has the potential to be the final steps to this rebuild. With a relatively weak free agent class and some important free agents to deal with in-house.
So, as boring as this answer might be to many, the biggest takeaway following a great postseason is to stay the course. Continue to make intelligent decisions that will favour the team in the short, medium, and long-term. If only the short term is considered, then the Habs’ so-called window will be as brief and inefficient as a certain Ontario rival and they will quickly return to draft selections that look like this season’s pick for that same team.
Peter Longo: With the surprising playoff run, there are many takeaways. From the surprisingly excellent goaltending to the great depth with all four lines contributing were great positives to the run. Unfortunately, for me, the biggest takeaway was the unexpectedly horrible coaching that was on display throughout the playoffs.
In every series, the team was outmaneuvered and out-coached by the opposing team. Jon Cooper, Lindy Ruff, and Rod Brind’Amour must be laughing at the pee-wee level coaching that was on display for the Habs.
Cooper was largely able to get his line matchups every game, regardless of whether it was a home or away game. The result was the complete shutdown of the Habs’ top offensive line. This continued throughout every series. Getting your line matches is a pretty standard thing in the NHL, but Montreal’s coaches seemed to ignore this strategic advantage.
The coaching staff had 82 games to try out different line combinations. Yet they somehow thought Game 1 of the playoffs was the time to try out new combinations by moving Oliver Kapanen away from Demidov to play with new wingers, moving Newhook to centre (which he didn’t see regular action at this year), and dropping one of your best centres Jake Evans to fourth-line winger. These coaching decisions directly led to the Game 2 loss against Tampa Bay.
When defending a lead in the last minute of a game, Slafkovsky was usually on the ice. I am a big fan of Slafkovsky, but how many times do you have to watch him panic with a risky turnover or ice the puck before you realize he’s probably not the right person in that situation?
After being dominated for several games against Carolina, there were zero changes made. No lineup changes, no different line combinations, no changes to the power play, nothing. After 19 games of your top line being completely shut down, you still refused to make changes to this line. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
You have the youngest team in the playoffs, your team is lacklustre and losing energy, and you have set new NHL records for fewest shots on net for several games. Yet the player with the greatest amount of playoff experience, the one who is praised league-wide for his endless energy, net-front presence, and never-give-up attitude continues to be a healthy scratch. What possible explanation is there to not change your lineup and insert Gallagher?
Against Carolina, your defence is getting crushed on every forecheck, turning over the puck to the point where they can’t even dump the puck in for a change. It’s clear your small, mobile defenceman can’t defend against the larger opposing forwards. Yet you refuse to insert Arber Xhekaj into the lineup – the one defenceman who can dominate physically and win every battle in the corner. There’s no better way to break up a cycle than having the forward crushed into the boards and onto the ground. After losing three humiliating games in a row to Carolina, what is there to lose to try something different?
The list of examples goes on and on. Some of the coaching decisions, or lack thereof, are simply bewildering. Did the coaching staff not see the results on the ice? Was it stubbornness – like in the movie Tin Cup – where coaches were going to keep the same lineup and strategy no matter what? Was it arrogance and ego? By asking questions to Marty St. Louis, did the reporters push him into a corner where his arrogance and ego wouldn’t permit him to view things clearly? I don’t know the answers to why the coaching staff made the decisions they did. I do know without a shadow of a doubt two things:
1) Without exceptional goaltending, this team doesn’t make it out of the first round
2) The team was out-coached in every series to a fatal degree
Marty St. Louis is a great hockey player, a charismatic person, and likely a good teacher for younger players. But when the team is ready to actually compete for the Cup, they will need better coaching.
Norm Szcyrek: Although the team was shut down by Carolina after their game one win in the Eastern Conference Final, I am proud of what they accomplished in this postseason. After a few days, I am feeling better and ready to tackle this column. In each of the first two rounds, most of the hockey experts [outside of Montreal] predicted the Habs would be defeated but they refused to lose. Each of those two seven-game series had some exciting moments, and several players stepped up when needed. Perhaps they benefited from some puck luck, but they also had a few plays and a few calls that went against them.
The experience this young core of players gained is invaluable. The team also took something from their first-round loss last year to Washington, but this time they earned the joy of winning those two series. They have earned some respect in this league for how far they made it this postseason; I am sure there are 28 other teams that would have gladly switched places with them if they could. Many Canadian fans from outside of Quebec that normally root for other teams were on board this Cinderella ride of les Habitants. This team has grown into a close family and that’s something special. The management team now has some tough decisions to make going forward, and we will all watch closely to see what the next chapter of this Canadiens franchise produces.