Coach Brind'Amour throws one of his best players under the bus after Game 1

The Carolina Hurricanes finally looked human Thursday night. After storming through the first two rounds of the playoffs undefeated, Carolina opened the Eastern Conference Final with a rough 6-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens at Lenovo Center. The game started perfectly for the Hurricanes when Seth Jarvis scored just 33 seconds into the first period, giving the crowd early energy and continuing Carolina’s trend of fast starts. Unfortunately for Rod Brind’Amour’s club, everything unraveled quickly after that.

Montreal answered only 27 seconds later and exposed Carolina’s defensive structure throughout the opening frame. The Canadiens scored four first-period goals, repeatedly finding open ice and capitalizing on turnovers and odd-man rushes. Frederik Andersen, who had been outstanding all postseason, endured his toughest night of the playoffs as Carolina struggled to slow Montreal’s transition game.

The Hurricanes generated chances and finished with 27 shots, but they lacked their usual sharpness after an 11-day layoff between series. Carolina’s top line never fully established control, and the normally disciplined defensive group allowed too many clean scoring opportunities. Eric Robinson’s second-period goal briefly gave the Hurricanes some life, but Montreal quickly shut the door.

After the game Coach Brind'Amour didn't hold back in his assessment of his team, saying that they "tossed the game."

“Obviously, it was not our best,” Brind’Amour said. “They made some nice plays. You give them credit, they finished. They made plays. But I didn’t think we were very sharp, to put it bluntly. Our top guys had a tough night, and that’s not gonna work this time of the year.

“So chalk it up. I think we just tossed this game, to be honest. I hate that this time of year, that’s what we gotta do. But there wasn’t much to really grab onto there. And I think you get behind early like that, it’s tough. But we clearly were not ready for that pace.”

Brind'Amour specifically singled out star defenseman Jaccob Slavin, who went -4, for playing maybe the worst game of his career.

"He had a tough one," Brind'Amour said about Slavin's play. "I've never seen that. Eight years."

Tough to argue with that assessment and you know that Slavin will be itching to make an impact in Game 2.

Slavin has quietly built one of the most respected careers of any defenseman currently in the NHL. Drafted by the Hurricanes in the fourth round in 2012, Slavin developed into the cornerstone of Carolina’s blue line and one of hockey’s elite shutdown defenders. A two-time winner of the Lady Byng Trophy in 2021 and 2024, he became just the second defenseman in NHL history to win the award multiple times. Slavin has also earned NHL All-Star recognition and consistent praise for his skating, positioning, and discipline. Through more than 700 NHL games, he has posted nearly 300 career points while maintaining an outstanding plus-minus rating. Widely regarded as one of the league’s best defensive defensemen, Slavin has helped lead Carolina to multiple deep playoff runs and has regularly appeared in Norris Trophy conversations despite not being an offensive-minded star.