WASHINGTON — Martin St. Louis's excitement for what lies ahead far outweighs any feeling of despair.
“The pain that you feel right now is normal,” Montreal’s head coach said after the Canadiens’ early playoff exit. “But it’s not even close to what’s coming — the joy that’s coming.”
The Canadiens were eliminated from the first round of the playoffs in five games by the Washington Capitals, but St. Louis believes his young group is only scratching the surface after a remarkable season of shattered expectations.
They were the youngest team to enter the playoffs, with an average age of 26.4.
After three seasons of missing the post-season — and undergoing the first rebuild in the storied franchise’s history — the Canadiens are far ahead of schedule in their return to playoff relevance.
Now the expectation is to stay there.
“I believe we have a lot of playoff hockey in front of us,” said rookie goalie Jakub Dobes, who replaced injured starter Sam Montembeault for the series’ second half. “Exciting feeling about the future.”
Perhaps nothing illustrates the reason for optimism better than St. Louis’s lineup at the end of Game 5.
Needing a couple of goals with the goalie pulled in the dying minutes, St. Louis sent five players over the boards age 25 or younger, alongside veteran forward Brendan Gallagher.
His first power-play unit — which found plenty of success in the second half of the series — consisted of Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky, Lane Hutson and Ivan Demidov, for an average age of 22.
Washington head coach Spencer Carbery heaped praise on Hutson and the top line of Suzuki, Caufield and Slafkovsky, comparing the game-planning process to what he faced against Tampa Bay Lightning stars Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point a few years ago.
“That top line, and what Lane Hutson has been able to do this year, that’s big-time stuff,” Carbery said. “They’re so young, so now you’re just imagining. I don’t even want to go to that place with the next 10 years of having to deal with that.”
Suzuki’s 89 points were the most by a Canadien since 1995-96. Hutson, with 66 points, tallied more than any rookie defenceman in franchise history. Caufield led the team with a career-high 37 goals, while Montembeault nearly doubled his previous best with 31 wins.
Demidov — one of the last core pieces yielded from Montreal’s teardown — flashed his world-class skill in only seven regular-season and playoff games.
The combination of young talent and resilient veterans like Gallagher, Josh Anderson and Mike Matheson fuelled the Canadiens’ 15-5-6 run after the 4 Nations Face-Off to punch their ticket to the playoffs.
And while the Capitals took the series in five games, every one was hard-fought.
“I gained a lot of respect for that team over there,” Capitals winger Tom Wilson said. “They've got a bright future, obviously, and they competed really hard and they got a bunch a warriors.”
The Canadiens believe they’ve grown after many experienced the physical, punishing nature of the NHL playoffs for the first time.
“You're going to be more comfortable next time you're in these situations in the playoffs,” said Suzuki, the captain. “There's a different level each individual has to get to. And I think it's a big learning opportunity for us, and we'll try to take everything and be better for next year."
“You get an understanding of what the playoffs are all about,” Gallagher added. “The physicality, the margin of error … It's really like a tug of war, one mistake, two mistakes usually are the difference in an outcome of a game.”
Gallagher, a 13-year veteran with seven seasons of playoff experience, knows the Canadiens' journey back to the NHL’s spring dance isn’t guaranteed.
“It's not going to be easy next year,” he said. “We're going to have to work just as hard to get back in this position and hopefully we're fortunate enough to get that opportunity.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 1, 2025.
Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press
