Canadiens target full 60 minutes against wobbling Hurricanes

Canadiens welcome Cup champions amid slow Carolina start

The Montreal Canadiens face the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night at the Bell Centre in their third game of the NHL season. The matchup, carried on TSN2 and RDS in the Canadiens’ region and on the Hurricanes’ regional network, brings the defending Stanley Cup champions back to Montreal for the first time since last spring’s playoff clash.

Carolina’s first week as reigning champions has been rough. After raising their banner, the Hurricanes dropped a 1-0 overtime decision to the Florida Panthers on a goal scored with only seconds remaining. They then went more than 100 minutes of game action before scoring their first goal of the year, only to fall 5-2 at home to the Washington Capitals after giving up three early goals in the opening period.

The Hurricanes finally earned their first win on Saturday, edging the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2 in overtime thanks to two goals from Sebastian Aho. At 1-1-1, their record is respectable for a group that spent the off-season celebrating a championship, but the start has exposed some early-season rust.

Lingering playoff memories and a chance at payback

The Canadiens know better than to assume Carolina’s early struggles will continue. Montreal swept the regular-season series against the Hurricanes last year but saw a very different story in the Eastern Conference Final. After surprising Carolina with a Game 1 win, the Canadiens dropped four straight as the Hurricanes reasserted themselves and advanced to the Stanley Cup Final.

The Bell Centre crowd has had months to sit with that disappointment, and the visit from the champions adds an emotional edge to an early-season game. For Montreal, though, the focus is less on revenge and more on fixing familiar issues that resurfaced almost immediately in this new campaign.

Fixing second-period slumps after wild finish in Pittsburgh

On Saturday in Pittsburgh, the Canadiens controlled play early, building a 7-1 advantage in shots before the first intermission yet finishing the period tied 1-1. The second period brought a collapse: the Penguins scored four unanswered goals as Montreal’s structure fell apart and goaltender Jakub Dobeš struggled to stem the tide.

Juraj Slafkovský did not sugar-coat the performance afterward, calling the second period awful and warning that “Tuesday’s only going to be harder.” The Canadiens are well aware that they cannot keep heading into third periods from behind, a pattern that hurt them repeatedly last season.

The late push in Pittsburgh did show what the offence can do when it clicks. Cole Caufield scored twice in the third period, Chris Kreider netted his first goal in a Canadiens uniform, and Ivan Demidov tied the game in the final minutes with the goalie pulled. Tommy Novak ended the comeback bid 1:33 into overtime, leaving Montreal with a single point.

With Carolina still searching for its top form after a summer with the Stanley Cup, Tuesday offers Montreal a chance to hand the champions another early setback. To seize it, the Canadiens will need exactly what has eluded them too often in recent years: a focused, consistent effort from puck drop to final horn.