So, don't expect the Canadiens to change now that they're up against the Hurricanes, the team notorious in the NHL for consistently forcing teams to play their way and at their pace for 60 rugged, pressure-filled minutes, the team that is 8-0 in the playoffs with back-to-back sweeps of the Ottawa Senators in the first round and Philadelphia Flyers in the second.
Game 1 is at Lenovo Center on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; HBO MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC).
"We're a possession team first and foremost," Suzuki said. "We like to have the puck, play with our control. For them, they bring a ton of pressure to every single place on the ice, and you have to be ready to make plays at any point. You can't just try to make plays for the sake of making plays. If you have to put it in the neutral zone and live to fight another day that's fine. I think we can do that, and it's definitely going to be needed in this series. We just have to be smart with how we're managing the puck."
The Canadiens went to work on some of the finer details of what they're going to need to do in practice in Montreal before flying here Wednesday.
Coach Martin St. Louis was not there and didn't travel here with the team Wednesday afternoon because of a personal family matter. Hughes said he is expected to arrive Wednesday night.
Assistant Trevor Letowski assumed St. Louis' media duties, and his message was consistent, that it's about the Canadiens and what they do.
"We know what they are, but at the end of the day we need to be very good at what we do in all the different areas," Letowski said. "That's going to be the challenge. I think any playoff series there's an element of physicality, the 1-v-1 battles, the stick details and things like that. But I think that's where Carolina excels is they're able to play with those details and at that pace throughout the season. It's about us and trying to find that little bit more consistency because I think we're going to need that in this series. We can't have hiccups like we had in the past. That's the challenge and hopefully we've learned from the last two rounds."
The Canadiens say they have learned a lot in the past two rounds, more, maybe, than they would have if they made the playoffs five straight seasons and lost in the first round each time.
They learned they can beat a team that is gifted offensively but uber focused in the defensive details of the game like the Lightning.
Letowski said they felt Game 6 was the best game they played in the first-round series against Tampa Bay and they lost 1-0 in overtime. They were outplayed in Game 7, outshot 29-9, and still won 2-1 in overtime.
They learned they can win in a looser, more river-hockey style against the Sabres. They allowed 15 goals in the three games they lost, including 8-3 in Game 6. They scored 20 in the four games they won. They were outshot 39-25 in Game 7 and won 3-2 in overtime.
Montreal is 6-0 in games following a loss in these playoffs.
"There's a bunch of lessons to be learned in Round 1 and then taking it into Round 2, where you just try to not lose two in a row," Caufield said. "That's where our mindset was. Obviously, you want to be ahead but if you lose two in a row in a series like that it's tough to come back. Obviously, there's times in games where you've got to stay mentally focused. I thought we did that, had failure to learn through that, bounced forward game by game. It's a big test going forward."
