Montreal Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis shared his reaction after the Habs were eliminated from the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Carolina Hurricanes won the Eastern Conference Finals 4-1 when they beat Montreal 6-1 in Game 5 on Friday night in Raleigh, North Carolina. Thus, Montreal’s storybook season finally comes to an end.
After finishing with 106 regular-season points, good for third in the stacked Atlantic Division, the Habs beat the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Buffalo Sabres in seven games each through the first two rounds of the playoffs, and it looked like they might have a very real chance of winning the franchise’s first Stanley Cup since 1993.
But it all came to a crashing end when the Hurricanes beat Montreal and knocked them out of this year’s playoffs for good.
Martin St. Louis Shares Reaction After Canadiens Are Eliminated From Playoffs
Speaking to reporters after the Habs were bounced from the playoffs, St. Louis shared his reaction to his team’s season ending.
“I feel like it’s something we’ve built, and we keep growing. We’ve learned, and we’re going to learn a lot through this process and failing at advancing. But you learn way more through the failures. This year, I know we’re not moving on, we’re not going to win the championship, but there’s a lot of wins in what we did this year. I think it’s going to help us to keep progressing,” St. Louis said.
While it’s a tough way for Montreal’s season to end, the team still took a major step forward, like coach St. Louis said they did, so they have no reason to hang their heads. This is still the youngest team in the entire NHL, and after gaining a ton of valuable playoff experience, there is every reason to think the Habs will continue to be Stanley Cup contenders for years to come.
Where Do the Habs Go From Here?
It will be interesting to see what Montreal does this offseason in an effort to try to improve its squad.
At this year’s trade deadline, the Canadiens mostly stood pat, opting to go into the postseason with the same team that they played the whole regular season with. While that almost worked out for them, ultimately, they lost to a more talented, deeper, and experienced Hurricanes team.
This offseason, look for the Canadiens to try to make some trades and/or free-agent signings to try and beef up their squad.
There were rumors at the trade deadline linking the Habs to trades with the St. Louis Blues for Robert Thomas and/or Jordan Kyrou. The Canadiens could reignite trade talks with the Blues this summer to see if they could bring in one of those players.
The Canadiens could use some additional scoring depth and defensive depth, so look for them to scour the trade market and free-agent market to try to improve around the edges.
As coach St. Louis said, this team took a major step forward this season. But to take the next step and make it to the Stanley Cup Finals, they still have work to do.
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