What happened on the Canadiens flight to Carolina before Game 5 tells a deeper story
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Daniel Lucente
May 29, 2026 (9:13)
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Photo credit: Eric Bolte-Imagn Images
The Montreal Canadiens flew to Raleigh on Thursday down 3-1 to the Carolina Hurricanes, one loss from elimination.
Nobody expected what came out of that flight.
Alexandre Carrier described a plane playing cards, running video game sessions, and laughing about a ping-pong rivalry between teammates. Zachary Bolduc confirmed the ping-pong series is tied 1-1.
"Played some cards, played some video games..I really liked the energy today. I think we turned the page. We're excited to get here together on the road, have a team dinner, play some ping pong."
- Alex Carrier
- Alex Carrier
What the flight energy actually reveals about Martin St-Louis
A team that has internally collapsed does not sound like this the night before a road elimination game.
Fractured rooms go quiet. Players stop joking around. The body language on the bench becomes individual, not collective.
What Carrier described is the opposite of that. It is the specific type of loose, connected energy that Martin St-Louis has deliberately built in Montreal since taking over this group.
St-Louis came in with a foundational belief that young teams perform better when they are not afraid of the moment. He has said publicly that he wants his players to enjoy the game, not survive it.
That philosophy looks fine in October. It looks like genuine culture when it shows up on a flight to Raleigh in a 3-1 series hole.
Why this matters more than the series deficit
The Montreal Canadiens have almost no historical precedent to lean on here. Coming back from 3-1 down has happened only a handful of times in NHL playoff history, and the odds are steep.
But teams that come back from 3-1 deficits almost always share one common trait: the locker room never accepted the series was over before the players stopped lacing up.
What Carrier described on that flight is not a guarantee of anything.
It is evidence, though, that this group has not mentally handed Carolina the handshake yet.
That is the story worth tracking heading into Game 5 Thursday night.
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