Brind'Amour: Canadiens 'have gotten better' since beating Canes in regular season

The Carolina Hurricanes have home-ice advantage in the Eastern Conferene Final, but the team they face has the upper hand in 25-26 regular season meetings. Head Coach Rod Brind'Amour talked about the matchup, whether 11 days off will help or hurt his team and what head learned in watching Montrreal beat Buffalo that the Canes can apply in their quest for the Stanley Cup.
Posted 5/20/2026, 5:20:15 PM Updated 5/20/2026, 5:22:05 PM

OK

You haven't heard my answer yet

No I I I think you know we we we

definitely come from different worlds and I think it's what

impresses me the most is um

His willingness to kind of understand the world that I'm

in and the world that we Eat breathe you know

our whole life and to try to really grasp that

I think that's been the biggest thing for me because

he's always asking and he always wants to get a

true understanding of why we think this way and I

think that's been for me anyway the thing that stands

out the most

Take a few more questions back left

Question for Rod for a long time have struggled against

the Hurricanes

They've won their last 4 against you guys in the

regular season

What do you see as far as maybe that's helped

them have that breakthrough and does it translate or not

at all when the playoffs I certainly hope not

If you know that trend we don't want that to

continue

I don't I don't think well I think they're a

better team

I think they've gotten better

So that's kind of the obvious question or answer

Like I said I don't I'm hoping that doesn't translate

I thought we actually played pretty well in those three

games

I went back we went back through them and you

know if you really break that down

Their best player was unbelievable in those 3 games so

or at least 2 of them

Um so that you know you definitely learn a little

bit from that but I think just in general their

team has just gotten better and that's obvious

They wouldn't be here if they weren't

We'll take 2 more questions on the right side 3rd

row

Rod what's made Montreal's power play so effective in the

playoffs especially against Buffalo Well I don't know if it's

just the playoffs

They've been dynamic

They got dynamic players

I mean you

He's throwing you know all 5 of those guys in

their own right are elite at what they do and

then you put them together in those roles and I

think they feed off each other really well

You just watch they're in sync and

Um end of the day power play is about skill

and they have it so um that's that's a definite

uh

Concern

Last question in the back of the room for

During a season quite often a coach will be complaining

that you don't have enough time to teach and to

practice

You're getting out of 11 days of practice

Uh was it sort of a challenge and a mini

training camp with less players What was your feeling Yeah

this time of year is not that's not what you

want

You're talking training camp first couple of months is when

you're pushing everything and when you get to this point

if you if you still are teaching a lot you

you wouldn't be still playing

So your guys are they're in game mode um and

so it was a challenge because stay sharp and and

yet knowing we were gonna have so much time uh

you know you don't wanna give them too much because

it's a mental drain the playoffs as you guys know

covering it it's just like every night you're like holy

mackerel and and so to get away from that is

good but you also don't want to get too far

away from it because you know you get out of

the the wheel so to speak so

That's been the challenge um you know uh we've had

two of those this playoffs so it's been kind of

Very interesting

Hopefully that the rest the mental rest will pay off

for us

I don't know how it's going to be physically

I mean obviously we've had some time to heal up

but at the pace I'm not sure how that's going

to translate but we'll find out

Thank you for your time guys

Thank you