Canadiens eager to finish job, clinch Stanley Cup Playoff berth against Hurricanes

MONTREAL -- The Montreal Canadiens control their own destiny one last time in their hopes of clinching a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

They’ve come up short in their first three opportunities but can secure the second wild card in the Eastern Conference with one point against the Carolina Hurricanes at Bell Centre on Wednesday (7 p.m. ET; RDS, SN1, SNE, SNO, FDSNSO).

“It’s been what, three games we’ve had a chance to clinch?” Montreal defenseman Kaiden Guhle said after the morning skate. “So, I think we’ve had enough time to get that out of our system. Now we’re just going to be ready to go.

“I don’t have much doubt in my mind that we’re going to have our A-game tonight.”

The Canadiens (39-31-11) have gone 0-1-2 in their past three games, each of which presented an opportunity to clinch and eliminate the Columbus Blue Jackets (39-33-9), who remained in the race with a 3-0 win at the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday.

But as long as they don’t lose to the Hurricanes in regulation, the Canadiens are going to the postseason to face the Washington Capitals in the first round. If they do lose in regulation, they will have to sweat out the Blue Jackets’ game Thursday against the New York Islanders, where a Columbus regulation win would knock Montreal out.

The Canadiens and Blue Jackets each have 29 regulation victories, which is the first tiebreaker; Montreal owns the next one, which is regulation/overtime wins (37/33).

“It’s do or die for us,” Guhle said. “We don’t want to have to wait until tomorrow to see the result, so I think we just want to get it done tonight for sure.”

Montreal is 9-0-2 in its past 11 games at Bell Centre, but that includes a 4-3 shootout loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday.

“This is a game that means a lot and you want to play those,” said Canadiens forward Emil Heineman, who will return after missing five games with an upper-body injury. “And it’s a lot of excitement that we have the chance to make it by ourselves, and I’m really looking forward to playing.”

Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said he’d rather see his players enter the playoffs through the front door by clinching a berth rather than needing outside help from the Islanders on Thursday. The Canadiens have never missed the playoffs more than three consecutive seasons and last qualified in 2021, when they lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Stanley Cup Final.

Forwards Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield are among Montreal’s few players remaining from that improbable run. Since then, the Canadiens have added a core crop of young talent, including the likes of Guhle and forward Juraj Slafkovsky, the No. 1 pick in the 2022 NHL Draft. Defenseman Lane Hutson is a Calder Trophy candidate as the NHL’s top rookie, and forward Ivan Demidov, the No. 5 pick in the 2024 NHL Draft, had a goal and an assist in his debut Monday.

“Everybody has their own expectation across the hockey world,” St. Louis said. “For us, we had a goal and it’s right in front of us right now. So, it’s very satisfying that we are where we are today. And there’s not one thing that got us there, it was just a combination of things.”