Impact of long layoff on display in Eastern Conference Final opener

The Coaches Room is a regular feature throughout the 2025-26 season by former NHL coaches and assistants who turn their critical gaze to the game and explain it through the lens of a teacher.

In this edition, Craig Johnson, a former assistant with the Anaheim Ducks and Ontario of the American Hockey League, and development coach with the Los Angeles Kings, writes about the Eastern Conference Final, what he saw in Game 1 between the Carolina Hurricanes and Montreal Canadiens, and what to look for in Game 2.

A series played at 5-on-5 should favor the Carolina Hurricanes.

It didn’t in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final for a lot of obvious reasons, but the Hurricanes can’t just throw away the tape from their 6-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens at Lenovo Center on Thursday and move on to Game 2 on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; HBO MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC).

There are teachable moments on that film that can help the Hurricanes in Game 2.

Yes, they may already know the reasons why the Canadiens exploited them so cleanly in the first period on their way to four unanswered goals before the intermission. I mean, it is pretty obvious.

But going over it, seeing what happened with clear eyes and time to digest the game and the outcome, is how the Hurricanes can best prepare for Game 2.

The film will show the Hurricanes that their typically disciplined F3 on their forecheck was caught too low too often, especially on the first two goals.

It will show them that their tracking and defending the rush was bad, that they often had two players on the same track, a no-no when defending the rush. Think of train tracks. You don’t want two guys on the same track when the train is coming at you. You need to be balanced, when one goes to the wall the other protects the middle of the ice on the dot lane.

So the film will show the Hurricanes that they didn’t defend in layers, which is why they didn’t handle the rush well and why they gave up three breakaway goals.

The film will show them that they had some quality breakouts and they had sustained pressure in the offensive zone, particularly in the second period, but they didn’t get enough traffic, enough pucks and bodies to the slot.

So they can see it and ask, how are we going to track? How are we going to sort out the rush?

Even at this stage of the season, there are teachable moments, and the Hurricanes have plenty of them on that Game 1 film.

Go over that and then they can go into the game and know they’re going to bring the energy, bring the compete, play with the puck, get pucks to the net, get retrievals, challenge Montreal’s defense because I don’t know if they can handle it, get pucks to the slot, bodies too.

That’s what I would focus on. That’s what they’ll learn from the video sessions they’ll go through before Game 2 because Game 1 was uncharacteristic of the Hurricanes. They were doing things I haven’t seen them do all playoffs.

They were sloppy and getting beat off walls. The Canadiens were just a little bit quicker to hit those open spots and they were jumping by Carolina quite a bit. The Hurricanes were a step behind. They were rusty after 11 full days off. That’s all you can say about it.

In practice, you try to replicate games and you try to put them in scenarios to keep them fresh, but you can’t replicate it, so sometimes when you’re not game sharp it goes back to their tracking, their F3, how they forecheck, their discipline and reading rushes.

K'Andre Miller just jets across and the other guy stays in the same track, and all of a sudden, it’s right across to Ivan Demidov for a breakaway. That has a lot to do with not being game fresh.

And that layoff isn’t just an excuse. This is just the fourth time in NHL history that a team has had at least 10 days off between playoff series, and all three previous teams with that kind of extended rest lost their next series.

Carolina walked into Game 1 carrying that weight, whether they acknowledged it or not.

But the Canadiens should like what they did. They should be confident that their speed will continue to give the Hurricanes fits. They know they are game fresh.

They were strong in their execution and puck play.

They were swinging guys back in the neutral zone. Sometimes they’d stretch and sometimes they’d hit the center back, pop it to him underneath and the center would come with a lot of speed. They were able to create a lot of pace through the neutral zone. Their puck movement throughout the game was very good and it created time and space for them.

When they would get the puck in the offensive zone, and it wasn’t often that they would sustain pressure there, they did a good job of isolating, getting pucks high to Lane Hutson and he would take advantage of the 1-on-1, manipulate the defender’s feet and challenge their forwards.

The Canadiens didn’t take many penalties, which helped. They didn’t give up anything, either, on the penalty kill when they did have to spend time in the box.

I thought their power play wasn’t good, but the Hurricanes are so structured in their denying the blue line and the pressure they put on. But that means both teams didn’t do much on the power play.

Looking forward, though, the question for the Canadiens is can they get more O-zone time? They didn’t have a lot in Game 1. Sure, when they did they got quality chances, but most of those chances were coming off mistakes the Hurricanes made and they were coming off the rush.

But here’s what Carolina must understand before Game 2: Montreal’s performance wasn’t just a product of the Hurricanes’ rust.

The Canadiens brought a prepared, deliberate game plan into Raleigh. That’s the mark of a well-coached team.

Martin St. Louis had his group ready to attack the specific vulnerabilities that come with a long layoff -- the slow reads, the hesitation, the lack of pace recognition. He said as much after the game, noting the importance of “coming in waves” and playing to their identity.

And the Hurricanes also need to respect what Montreal has built on the road this postseason.

The Canadiens are 7-2 away from home in the playoffs, having scored first in five of nine road games, led at the first intermission in six, and led heading into the third period in four consecutive outings. That’s not luck. That’s a road identity, a mental and tactical consistency that doesn’t change with the building. Carolina has to account for it.

The Canadiens got their chances and they connected on them. That spurs confidence, of which the Canadiens have a lot of now.

The Hurricanes have to be able to strip some of that confidence away. The video can be their guide. It doesn’t lie.