Rod Brind’Amour assigns blame after Canadiens end Hurricanes’ unbeaten playoff run

The Montreal Canadi e ns finally cracked the NHL playoff armor of the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday night, and coach Rod Brind’Amour did not hide from the reality of it. Montreal stormed into Lenovo Center and delivered a 6-2 win in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final, ending Carolina’s perfect 8-0 postseason run and exposing a team that looked unprepared from the opening shift. Carolina actually scored first through Seth Jarvis just 33 seconds into the game.

From there, everything unraveled. Montreal answered with four goals in the opening 11:32, the fastest four-goal stretch to start a road playoff game in franchise history. Cole Caufield, Phillip Danault, Alexandre Texier and Ivan Demidov cut through Carolina’s defensive structure with alarming ease.

MORE: Wayne Gretzky calls Sidney Crosby NHL’s Tom Brady, LeBron James Brind’Amour pointed directly at his group afterward. “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.