The Montreal Canadiens are moving on from their Eastern Conference Final exit their own way, and captain Nick Suzuki is at the center of it.
The Athletic's Arpon Basu wrote this weekend that Canadiens management believes it is better to be copied than to copy anyone else. No borrowed blueprint. No shortcuts.
That is a bold stance for a team that just got bounced by the Carolina Hurricanes in five games, one win and four losses, ending a run that started back in April.
Kent Hughes built this roster to grow into its own identity, not to copy whatever formula worked somewhere else. That belief just got tested in the toughest way possible.
Suzuki finished the playoffs with 16 points in 19 games, four goals and 12 assists, while going minus-8 across three rounds.
Cole Caufield led the group offensively with 13 points in 19 games. Lane Hutson matched Suzuki's 16 points from the back end, adding 13 assists.
Montreal went 48-24-10 in the regular season for 106 points, sixth overall, then knocked off Tampa Bay and Buffalo before Carolina ended it.
The 9,500,000 dollar problem nobody wants to name
Juraj Slafkovsky chipped in 12 points over 19 games with six goals, steady production for a young winger carrying real playoff minutes.
Noah Dobson did not follow that pattern. Brought in to stabilize the blue line, he managed one point in 13 playoff games and went minus-7.
That is the part Basu's column did not dwell on. A defenseman making 9,500,000 dollars going quiet for most of a run is not a footnote.
Standing on principle reads well in a press quote. It does not explain why a top-pairing rearguard vanished when the games got heaviest. He was injured though, so we'll see in the coming season if he's able to comeback stronger.
Building your own path is admirable until it starts looking like an excuse for not fixing an obvious hole. Hughes has the record to back his patience, for now.
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Martin St-Louis leaned on Suzuki, Hutson and Caufield all spring. The next man in that top four is the real question heading into next season. Slafkovsky, Demidov?
Carolina is still standing behind that Eastern Conference banner. Montreal is left studying a series where the record says close, and the box score says something else.
Should the Canadiens trade Noah Dobson this offseason after his playoff disappearance?
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