Canadiens Steamrolled The Champions

When the curtain fell on the 2024-25 NHL season, the FloridaPanthers skated away with the Stanley Cup for a second year running, which consolidatedtheir status as the best team in the league.

Still, during the regular season,the Montreal Canadiens played them four times and won every single one, whichis no small feat.

When Patrik Laine went to the Cup Final and celebrated theCats victory with captain Aleksander Barkov, he was teased about joining themand simply replied he was fine in Montreal, having beaten the Panthers at everyturn this season.

The two sides met for the first time at the end of Decemberin Florida, after the Christmas break, and rookie netminder Jakub Dobes hadjust been called up following Cayden Primeau's demotion.

Coach Martin St-Louiswasted no time testing the young netminder and threw him straight in the deepend against the reigning champions.

The youngster performed exceptionally well,stopping the 34 shots he received.

Meanwhile, Kirby Dach took matters into his ownhands and scored Montreals first two goals in a 4-0 win.

Canadiens: Recovering From A Second ACL Injury Is A Big DealCanadiens: Most Heated Rivalry Shows No Sign Of Cooling OffCanadiens Should Have Big Delegation Of Prospects At WJCIn mid-March, the Panthers rolled into town looking forrevenge but were denied by Samuel Montembeault, who was named the third star ofthe game thanks to 21 saves on 22 shots.

Meanwhile, the Canadiens scored threegoals despite taking only 15 shots on net.

This wasnt Sergei Bobrovskys bestgame of the season, far from it.

Two weeks later, the Canadiens were back in Sunrise and grabbedanother win, this one by a score of 4-2.

The win was the result of two powerplay goals and a lot of tenacity.

Montreal took the lead twice and let thePanthers come back each time, but when they took their third lead, they held onand shut down the Cats in the third period.

Captain Nick Suzuki led the chargewith a pair of assists and the game-winning goal.

The fourth and final meeting was the closest one, the Habsskated away with a 3-2 overtime win on April 11th when the Canadiensneeded the win to qualify for the postseason, and the Panthers were without afew regulars.

Despite only shooting 21 times on Vitek Vanecek, Suzuki (twice)and Josh Anderson found the back of the net.

The captain scored thegame-winning goal less than 30 seconds into the extra frame.Throughout the four duels, the Canadiens outscored thePanthers 14-5, and despite not bombarding the Panthers net, they found a wayto be opportunistic and get the eight points that were up for grabs.

A big partof the Habs success was being able to contain Floridas best players; Barkovonly got two points in the series, while Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett only hadone.

Of course, the fact that Bobrovsky had an .838 save percentage, SpencerKnight .840 SV, and Vanecek .833 SV didnt hurt either.

On the Canadiens side, rookie blueliner Lane Hutson was theringleader with seven points in the series, closely followed by Suzuki andJuraj Slafkovsky, who both had five points.

Of course, Montembeaults .935 SVand Dobes shutout were also essential keys to the Canadiens success.

Will Montreal be able to replicate the same success against theFlorida outfit this season? Its hard to predict, but one things for sure:Bill Zito did everything he could to keep his championship roster together, andhe succeeded.

He kept all of his pending free agents, somehow managing toretain Aaron Ekblad, Sam Bennett, and Brad Marchand.

Florida even managed toadd some depth on defense, signing former Hab Jeff Petry at a team-friendlyprice for one year.

The 37-year-old veteran wants one last opportunity to winthe Stanley Cup, and he believes that Florida might just be able to go for athree-peat, something that hasnt happened since the New York Islanders wonfour Championships in a row at the start of the 1980s.

In net, it looks like Bobrovsky will be backed up by freeagent signing Daniil Tarasov after the Panthers traded away Spencer Knight lastseason to add Seth Jones to their already impressive blueline.

Tarasov has only65 games of experience in the NHL, with a 3.44 goals-against average and a .898save percentage.

If the young Canadiens can replicate their performanceagainst the Champions this upcoming season, it will be another confidencebuilder for the Habs.

Theyll have their work cut out for them, though.Montreals penalty kill was exceptionally efficient against the Cats lastseason, only allowing one goal on eight opportunities, and now that Joel Armiaand Christian Dvorak have left, the Canadiens will have to replace them on thespecial team units.

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