{"id":542714,"date":"2026-04-05T21:20:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T21:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/542714\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T21:20:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T21:20:23","slug":"montreal-returns-to-nhl-playoffs-1st-canadian-team-to-clinch-playoff-spot-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/542714\/","title":{"rendered":"Montreal returns to NHL playoffs, 1st Canadian team to clinch playoff spot this year"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\t\t\tBy Daniel Rainbird<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Canadian Press\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tPosted April 5, 2026 4:52 pm\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t1 min read\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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The Montreal\u00a0Canadiens\u00a0are playoff-bound again.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Montreal clinched its spot in the Stanley Cup<\/a> playoffs Sunday afternoon after the Detroit Red Wings fell 5-4 to the Minnesota Wild, making the\u00a0Canadiens\u00a0the first Canadian NHL team to secure a post-season berth.<\/p>\n

It marks a second straight appearance after the\u00a0Canadiens\u00a0snapped a three-year drought last spring, following a full-scale rebuild. They claimed the final spot in the Eastern Conference before falling to the Washington Capitals in five games in the first round.<\/p>\n

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This time, they\u2019re not just squeaking in.<\/p>\n

Montreal (45-21-10) has punched its ticket with six games to spare in the regular season and sits second in the Atlantic Division with 100 points, firmly in the mix for home-ice advantage heading into Sunday night\u2019s matchup with the New Jersey Devils.<\/p>\n

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The\u00a0Canadiens\u00a0\u2014 with Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Lane Hutson leading a young, talented core \u2014 are also riding an eight-game winning streak.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Daniel Rainbird The Canadian Press Posted April 5, 2026 4:52 pm 1 min read Descrease article font…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5103],"tags":[19,265,5,264,21,5147,4,43,14],"class_list":{"0":"post-542714","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-montreal-canadiens","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-canadiens","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-montreal","12":"tag-montreal-canadiens","13":"tag-montrealcanadiens","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-stanley-cup"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116354196226939830","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}