{"id":686097,"date":"2026-05-21T23:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T23:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/686097\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T23:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T23:10:08","slug":"they-celebrate-everyone-montreal-canadiens-enjoying-playoff-ride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/686097\/","title":{"rendered":"‘They celebrate everyone’: Montreal Canadiens enjoying playoff ride"},"content":{"rendered":"

RALEIGH \u2014 Kirby Dach<\/a> and his teammates used to discuss a potential future late into the night.<\/p>\n

The Canadiens were in a rebuild accented by plenty of tough moments and hard lessons. There was also a deep belief that something special was beginning to crystallize.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d sit together in hotel rooms after games,\u201d said forward Kirby Dach<\/a>. \u201cAnd talk about how great it would be to win in the city of Montreal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Four years after finishing last in the NHL\u2019s overall standings, the Original Six club has done exactly that this spring.<\/p>\n

After besting both the Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a> and Buffalo Sabres<\/a> with Game 7 victories on the road, the peach-fuzzed Canadiens are up against the top-seeded, battle-tested Carolina Hurricanes<\/a> in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference final.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a confident group,\u201d the 25-year-old Dach said Thursday ahead of Game 1 at Lenovo Center. \u201cWe\u2019re all pretty close in age, too, so we\u2019re all enjoying this run together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The selection of Juraj Slafkovsky kick-started the Canadiens\u2019 surge from the league\u2019s basement when he was picked first overall at the 2022 draft. Dach was acquired from the Chicago Blackhawks<\/a> the same day before the club\u2019s brain trust made a series of shrewd moves that eventually got Montreal to within eight victories of a record 25th Stanley Cup banner.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow that we\u2019re here and we\u2019re doing the things we\u2019re doing, we\u2019re definitely excited for the opportunity,\u201d Dach said. \u201cBut I don\u2019t think things ever looked grim when I got here. We were always excited to come to the rink and excited to be around each other, and to build to what we\u2019ve become today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Snagged from the New York Islanders<\/a> via trade at last June\u2019s draft, Canadiens defenceman Noah Dobson<\/a> has become another key piece of the puzzle.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get to this stage, you gotta have a confidence and belief,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montreal head coach Martin St. Louis, who won the Cup as a player with Tampa in 2004 and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2018, said the camaraderie up and down his roster is unique.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey celebrate everyone, they\u2019re happy for the group,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s different guys at different times, but they\u2019re happy for everyone \u2026 I feel that\u2019s not the norm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dach said the Canadiens have bought into the message from St. Louis and his staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody in the locker room wants to do more and be more,\u201d he said. \u201cYou have to put aside maybe personal feelings or personal thoughts. You have to do what\u2019s best for everybody around you and the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo what the task at hand is asking of you. There\u2019s really no better feeling than winning games and spending time with your teammates, and seeing the happiness grow each and every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dach added that while the players are focused on results, it\u2019s also impossible to ignore the rabid support of a fan base that had to be patient.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s cool to see the city the way it is,\u201d he said. \u201cWe appreciate the fans and the love and the support they give us throughout the regular season, but (they\u2019ve) definitely taken it to another level in the playoffs. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe talked about moments like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

BIDING THEIR TIME<\/p>\n

The Hurricanes swept the Ottawa Senators<\/a> to open the playoffs before doing the same to the Philadelphia Flyers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Carolina was off for 11 days \u2014 the longest post-season break since 1920, according to SportRadar \u2014 after nearly a week off between the first and second rounds.<\/p>\n

So, other than practising, what did the team do during its schedule lull?<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the dads were parenting,\u201d said forward Jordan Martinook<\/a>. \u201cI got to go to some things at my kids\u2019 school that I don\u2019t think I ever would if I didn\u2019t have this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

But while the family moments were special, the players wanted to get back into the action.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt kind of sucks \u2026 once you\u2019re in the playoff mindset, you just want to be in it,\u201d Martinook added. \u201cWe\u2019ve been off long enough that it\u2019s almost like the horses are waiting in the chutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just waiting to get out.\u201d<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May, 21, 2026.<\/p>\n

Joshua Clipperton, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RALEIGH \u2014 Kirby Dach and his teammates used to discuss a potential future late into the night. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":686098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":["post-686097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=686097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/686098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}