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<\/p>\n\u201cWe have guys that can score, we have guys who can kill penalties, block shots, play hard,\u201d he added after the Canadiens held on for a 2-1 win in Game 7 on Sunday. \u201cWe have all of the tools in here, and I\u2019m not shocked at all that we\u2019re in this position right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
Rebuilds across the NHL rarely bear fruit this quickly. The Canadiens have been on a fast track.<\/p>\n
After losing in the 2021 Stanley Cup final, the franchise began a full-scale teardown in 2021-22, starting with a regime change that saw Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes form a new front office and Martin St. Louis take over behind the bench.<\/p>\n
Montreal finished last in 2021-22 and drafted Juraj Slafkovsky first overall that summer, then placed fifth-last the following two seasons while continuing to stockpile prospects and draft picks.<\/p>\n
With defenceman Lane Hutson on board last season, the Canadiens surprisingly snuck into the playoffs before losing a five-game first-round series to Washington. This season has marked another step forward with a 106-point regular season followed by a series win.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe started this rebuild, and slowly but surely, we drafted some really good players and have an amazing coach,\u201d Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki said. \u201cBeen probably faster than most people expected, but when you get a lot of great players together with a great system and great leadership, things can turn quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hutson credited the veteran leadership and a tight-knit dressing room as key drivers of the team\u2019s success, something defenceman Noah Dobson felt the moment he walked through the door.<\/p>\n
Attracted by the talent and upside of Montreal\u2019s young core, Dobson signed an eight-year extension after being acquired from the New York Islanders last summer. He\u2019s only been more sold since.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been impressive for a young team, I feel like their demeanour and composure is (rare),\u201d said Dobson, who appeared to reinjure his hand in Game 7. \u201cNo matter how big of a moment, the guys handled it.\u201d<\/p>\n
NOT LEAVING!<\/p>\n
Call him the Wolf of Ste-Catherine Street. <\/p>\n
St. Louis went viral when broadcast cameras captured him inside the dressing room pounding his chest and re-enacting a scene from \u201cThe Wolf of Wall Street.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not leaving!\u201d St. Louis shouted, channelling Leonardo DiCaprio\u2019s Jordan Belfort. \u201cThe show keeps going!\u201d<\/p>\n
A former Lightning great, St. Louis earned his first playoff series win as a coach in the same building where he won a Stanley Cup in 2004, and where his number hangs from the rafters.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t take the player out of me,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t try to be in the locker room a lot. To me, this is their space. It\u2019s their team, it\u2019s not my team. I\u2019m trying to steer them. But every now and then, I\u2019ve had moments with them.<\/p>\n
\u201cA night like (Sunday), I wanted to be with them, and we had some fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Suzuki highlighted an earlier speech from his coach, when St. Louis rallied the group after the Canadiens registered zero shots in the second period \u2014 a first in franchise playoff history.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the best coaches in the whole world,\u201d Suzuki said. \u201cSays the right thing at every single situation and knows how to get the best out of his guys. No one was happy with that second period, and he comes in all fired up, getting us going for the third.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s our leader, and everyone will do anything for him. He\u2019s a hell of a coach and he\u2019s only been doing this for a short period of time, so I can imagine he\u2019s going to continue to get better. He just loves what he does, and we love playing for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
GOALIE FRATERNITY<\/p>\n
Jakub Dobes got a proper thank-you from his teammates after making 28 saves Sunday: a face full of shaving cream.<\/p>\n
The rookie goalie had just finished his post-game interview on TNT when fellow netminders Jacob Fowler and Sam Montembeault ambushed him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love those guys, they\u2019re awesome,\u201d Dobes said. \u201cBut I can\u2019t wait for the next practice, I will have something prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n
GAME WINNER<\/p>\n
The biggest goal of the series goes to Alex Newhook. The 25-year-old from St. John\u2019s, N.L., scored the winner with 8:53 remaining in the third period, capitalizing on a lucky bounce by swatting the puck out of mid-air and banking it off Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy.<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably No. 1,\u201d Newhook said of where that goal ranks. \u201cA big moment and we needed one as a group, so someone had to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 4, 2026.<\/p>\n
Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe have guys that can score, we have guys who can kill penalties, block shots, play hard,\u201d he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647986,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-647985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647985","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=647985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}