Carolina travel to Montreal today for a grudge match with the Habs. It’s going to be a fun game regardless given some of the stuff that has happened off the ice. We will get to see them meet for the first time this season and in very different situations on the ice. One team is struggling and the other one is flying high.
Coming into this game, last season’s Stanley Cup finalists are struggling. Montreal comes into this game on the back of a 5-0 defeat to the San Jose Sharks in Montreal. While the Habs currently sit at a 0-4-0 record having only scored 3 goals on the season. To be quite honest, the Habs are in a bit of a crisis and the Canes need to be heartless as they travel into the French province.
This comes after the Hurricanes had the first successful NHL offer sheet in forever when they got one of the Canadiens big playoff performers to sign an offer sheet that the Montreal Canadiens elected not to match, and don’t you worry, we’ll get to talking about that player in this too. But since then, the Canadiens have tried to retaliate by getting the Canes punished by the league, to no avail.
Carolina only played 4 preseason games and in the collective bargaining agreement, it says teams need to play six. Carolina was granted amnesty by the league for reasons of COVID and the fact that there’s a new team on the west coast that we will get to talking about the Seattle Kraken soon when the Canes play them. But for now, it’s the Hurricanes and Canadiens we get to dive into.
For those that remember the 2019 off-season, and what set off the offer sheet that was submitted this summer by the Carolina Hurricanes, we will also get to talking about that one. We’re going to be talking about a lot of things that could impact this game and the ties between the teams.
Also, it’s been reported that former Carolina Hurricane and current Montreal Canadien Joel Edmundson has had some family issues away from the team, and we would like to send nothing but our best wishes to him and his family. With the news that his father has lung cancer, we would like to ask you to keep Edmundson’s family in your thoughts as they go through this tough time.