RALEIGH, N.C. — Montreal Canadiens rookie Ivan Demidov was talking to reporters ahead of Game 4 of the Eastern Conference final against the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday morning and was asked to compare his team’s experience in this series to what they went through in the first round against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Both were tight-checking series. Both were difficult for the Canadiens to navigate, but for Demidov in particular, it was the first time he had ever seen hockey like this.
Demidov struggled to find space in the first round against the Lightning, an experienced, battle-hardened team that was desperate to add a Stanley Cup while still in their competitive window.
So how similar was his experience in this series against the Hurricanes, a similarly battle-hardened team with a bit more desperation to win their first Cup in this contention window they have meticulously cultivated?
“I would say yeah, it’s pretty similar, but (the Hurricanes) do everything faster,” Demidov said. “It’s just, you know, you have to do everything better. Do everything faster.
“That’s how it works.”
As Demidov spoke that morning, it was impossible not to notice how sparsely populated his chin was with facial hair. He’s 20, trying to grow a playoff beard, and that chin revealed just how unprepared he was for the situation. But his response was bang on, a perfect read of how the series was going for the Canadiens.
The Canadiens needed to do everything faster; they needed to do everything better, and they just couldn’t.
They lost Game 4 that night 4-0, a score that belied how lopsided that game was, and they lost Game 5 on Friday night 6-1, ending this playoff run three wins short of reaching the Stanley Cup Final.
That response from Demidov prior to Game 4 stood out in the aftermath because he seemed to know how far away the Canadiens were from being competitive in this series, despite having lost consecutive overtime games by a 3-2 score.
He knew the score in those games did not tell the whole story.
Demidov’s buddy, Lane Hutson, knows it too.
“As close as it feels, we’re so far away still,” Hutson said following the Canadiens’ elimination. “So much more to do to battle and get to the ultimate goal. When you win two rounds, you’ve still got to find another level for the next round and hopefully keep going.”
The Canadiens might have been three wins shy of reaching the final, but they were seven wins shy of winning the Stanley Cup. Considering they won nine playoff games this year, that is a long way off.
But the reality is this Canadiens team will reach its peak competitiveness when Hutson is in his prime, and he’s only 22; his playoff beard is only slightly more impressive than Demidov’s. They will reach that peak when Demidov and Juraj Slafkovský are in their primes as well, and as full as Slafkovský’s playoff beard was after his fourth NHL season, he is also only 22.
Those three players are at the heart of the Canadiens’ future, and they are still so young.
The first time coach Martin St. Louis was eliminated from the playoffs during his playing career, it was in the second round, a five-game loss in 2003 to the New Jersey Devils, the team that went on to win the Stanley Cup.
“When you go through something like this, you realize the NHL’s a great league, but going through this, it’s unbelievable,” St. Louis said. “And I remember my first experience losing in the playoffs in the second round; I was so upset on the bus because I couldn’t believe I’m going to have to go through another 82 games before I get to have this fun.
“When you taste that, it makes you hungrier. Because we’ve had a lot of fun the last seven weeks. There’s been waves and stuff, but it’s been unbelievable to go through it.”
St. Louis was six weeks shy of his 28th birthday when the Lightning lost. The year after, they won the Stanley Cup.
The Canadiens are likely not that close to winning the ultimate prize, but the fact that they learned these lessons this early in their process bodes extremely well for their chances of one day getting there. St. Louis likes to say, as he did a few times after the Game 5 loss, that you learn more from failure than success.
The Canadiens were thoroughly dominated in Games 4 and 5. (Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images)
“It’s hard right now to turn around and be positive, but I think we have a lot to be proud of with what we were able to accomplish this year,” defenceman Mike Matheson said. “But at the same time I think it shows us how far we are from being able to get all the way. I feel like it’s a great learning experience in that sense and it kind of lights a new fire under us.”
It will be important for the Canadiens to take nothing for granted, to avoid looking at the promise of this team with Hutson, Slafkovský, Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Noah Dobson and Matheson all locked up to long-term deals at very reasonable numbers, with Demidov likely to be the next long-term contract to come in a few weeks, and assume this will happen every year or that they will take the next step next season as a natural part of their progression.
It doesn’t always work that way, but sometimes, experiences like winning two seven-game series before being completely and utterly overwhelmed by a seasoned team can lay a foundation for years of sustained playoff success.
“It was a hell of a run, a lot of learning, a lot of excitement, a lot of fun,” Suzuki said. “Hopefully we’re in these situations a lot more in the future.”
This is what makes Hutson’s read on the series so important.
He was not happy to get this far. He chose instead to focus on how far they were from the ultimate goal of winning a Stanley Cup, and he didn’t care all that much about being ahead of schedule, about the fact that the Canadiens are still in the midst of a rebuild that is clearly not finished, about this being gravy.
“You never know when it’s your last time in the playoffs; guys have talked about it here before,” Hutson said. “Making the playoffs is such a big deal, but going deep into it, you never know when you’ll do that again. I’m confident we’ll be back, but there’s never a guarantee.”
There isn’t a guarantee, and that is why Demidov’s read of the series is so important: this experience will only make him grow. He has a clearer idea of what he needs to improve to perform at this time of year, just like Hutson, just like Slafkovský, just like all the Canadiens’ young players who never could have expected to pile up 19 playoff games when Matheson entered these playoffs with 25 in his 10-year career.
“He’s going to be dangerous, for sure,” Hutson said of Demidov. “Just his mentality, the way he works. Just being around him is so fun because it just brings more out of me. He looked great all playoffs, honestly, even if the production wasn’t necessarily what he wanted or anyone wanted, it doesn’t matter. He fit in really well and played the way he needed to play.”
This loss will sting for the Canadiens because they felt so close to what they wanted to accomplish. But it shouldn’t sting because they weren’t actually all that close.
The team planted a seed last year with a first trip to the playoffs and a first-round exit, then watered it with this latest playoff run lasting much longer than anyone could have reasonably expected.
But it still needs to be cultivated.