NHL playoffs: The record champions are there!

The Montreal Canadiens, 24-time NHL champions, qualified for the playoffs at the last minute, sending the ice hockey stronghold in eastern Canada into ecstasy.

17 April 2025

From: fop

What a relief in Montreal: With a 4-2 home win in their final game of the season against the Carolina Hurricanes, the Canadiens secured their ticket to the Stanley Cup playoffs last night (CEST).

Coach Martin St-Louis' team took its fate into its own hands at the end of the regular season and is now four points ahead of the Columbus Blue Jackets, who only have one game left, in the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.

The visitors from Carolina, who enter the playoffs as the second-best team in the Metropolitan Division and will face the New Jersey Devils in the first round, kept the game open for a long time, even though coach Rod Brind'Amour was without seven regular players.

You can rely on Suzuki

Once again, it was captain Nick Suzuki who pulled the Habs out of the fire. He scored his 30th goal of the season in the second period to give them a 2-1 lead and set the stage for victory. Suzuki finished the regular season with 89 points, more than in any other season of his career. It was also the best tally by a Canadiens player since Pierre Turgeon (96) and Vincent Damphousse (94) in the 1995/96 season.

Schlagwörter: Hockey NHL Montreal Canadiens Nick Suzuki