{"id":584935,"date":"2026-04-06T02:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T02:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/584935\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T02:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T02:08:11","slug":"montreal-canadiens-clinch-playoff-spot-for-second-consecutive-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/584935\/","title":{"rendered":"Montreal Canadiens clinch playoff spot for second consecutive season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Montreal Canadiens’ forward Cole Caufield (13) celebrates his goal with teammates Nick Suzuki (14) and Juraj Slafkovsky (20) during second period action against the Anaheim Ducks in Montreal last month.Christinne Muschi\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

The Montreal Canadiens are playoff-bound again.<\/p>\n

Montreal clinched its spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs Sunday afternoon after the Detroit Red Wings fell 5-4 to the Minnesota Wild, making the Canadiens the first Canadian NHL team to secure a post-season berth.<\/p>\n

It marks a second straight appearance after the Canadiens snapped a three-year drought last spring, following a full-scale rebuild. They claimed the final spot in the Eastern Conference before falling to the Washington Capitals in five games in the first round.<\/p>\n

This time, they\u2019re not just squeaking in.<\/p>\n

Montreal (45-21-10) has punched its ticket with six games to spare in the regular season and sits second in the Atlantic Division with 100 points, firmly in the mix for home-ice advantage heading into Sunday night\u2019s matchup with the New Jersey Devils at the Bell Centre.<\/p>\n

The Canadiens \u2013 with Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Lane Hutson leading a young, talented core \u2013 are also riding an eight-game winning streak after a perfect 5-0-0 road trip, vaulting within two points of the division lead.<\/p>\n

Several players have stepped up with stellar seasons for Montreal.<\/p>\n

Caufield is one goal shy of becoming the first Canadien since St\u00e9phane Richer in 1989-90 to score 50 times in a season, Suzuki has 95 points and could become the fifth player to reach the century mark in franchise history. Hutson, meanwhile, is six points from joining Larry Robinson as the only Canadiens defencemen with 80 points in a season \u2013 in his sophomore campaign.<\/p>\n

Juraj Slafkovsky, the first overall pick in the 2022 NHL draft, has broken out with 29 goals and 67 points in 76 games, while 20-year-old Ivan Demidov leads all rookies in scoring with 60 points.<\/p>\n

Rookie goalie Jakub Dobes has also come on of late, posting a 9-3-0 record with a .927 save percentage and 2.24 goals-against average since February\u2019s Olympic break, quieting the concerns about goaltending that dominated headlines earlier this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Montreal Canadiens’ forward Cole Caufield (13) celebrates his goal with teammates Nick Suzuki…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,2338,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":{"0":"post-584935","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-montreal","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-ca","15":"tag-canada","16":"tag-canada-news","17":"tag-canada-sports","18":"tag-canada-sports-news","19":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","20":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","21":"tag-canadian-news","22":"tag-economy","23":"tag-education","24":"tag-environment","25":"tag-federal-government","26":"tag-foreign-news","27":"tag-globe-and-mail","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","29":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","30":"tag-government","31":"tag-life-news","32":"tag-lifestyle","33":"tag-local-news","34":"tag-manitoba","35":"tag-montreal","36":"tag-national-news","37":"tag-new-brunswick","38":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","39":"tag-northwest-territories","40":"tag-nova-scotia","41":"tag-nunavut","42":"tag-ontario","43":"tag-pei","44":"tag-photos","45":"tag-political-news","46":"tag-political-opinion","47":"tag-politics","48":"tag-politics-news","49":"tag-quebec","50":"tag-sports-news","51":"tag-technology","52":"tag-travel","53":"tag-trudeau","54":"tag-us-news","55":"tag-world-news","56":"tag-yukon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}