RALEIGH, N.C. -- Montreal has mastered the art of resiliency. Or, as the Canadiens call it: bouncing forward.
It's a turn of phrase Juraj Slafkovsky used nearly three years ago that has become Montreal's mantra during a roller-coaster postseason run through back-to-back seven-game series to reach the Eastern Conference finals against Carolina.
Slafkovsky uttered the phrase while mired in a tough professional stretch.
As a 19-year-old, he had just completed his 50th NHL game, and scored his first goal of the 2023-24 season in a 6-3 loss to the St. Louis Blues .
There was talk going into that matchup that coach Martin St. Louis should have moved Slafkovsky down the lineup; instead, St. Louis put Slafkovsky on the team's top line with Cole Caufield and Nick Suzuki .
The coach's decision worked -- Slafkovsky gained confidence from the goal, and coined the expression that has had unexpectedly long legs.
“I would say [I'm better at moving on],” Slafkovsky said at the time. “I don't focus on the past because I can't do much about it.
I'm just looking forward after every game, trying to watch the clips shortly after a game, think about what could be better and bounce forward.”
It would be easy to chalk up Slafkovsky's statement as a non-native English speaker misusing the more colloquial “bounce back.” But that's not how the Canadiens roll.
Something about this concept has stuck for a team that's well past knocking on the door.
St. Louis has -- in his signature cadence -- described bouncing forward as the simple “physics” of advancing somewhere new, as opposed to returning somewhere familiar.
It was fitting to resurface that verbiage after Montreal's 8-3 loss in Game 6 of its second-round playoff series against the Buffalo Sabres .
“I feel like we've been good at bouncing forward,” the coach said after his club failed to eliminate the Sabres at home. “And that's what we intend to do.”
The Canadiens responded with a 3-2 overtime victory in Game 7 to put themselves into the conference finals.
The road hasn't been easy.
It also took seven games for Montreal to best the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round.
But Montreal isn't skating by on the strength of its superstars.
The Canadiens are fueled by star-making turns that have helped boldly bounce Montreal from plucky underdogs to undeniable front-runners, thanks to having all hands on deck.
“Everyone knows their role and are accepting of that role,” defenseman Kaiden Guhle said. “Whether it's a bottom-six PK guy, or a top-six power-play guy. [Everyone] is finding success, not just offensively, but in other areas of the game, too.
They're making an impact.
That says a lot about the success we're having so far.”
GUHLE IS A GREAT EXAMPLE of those less-talked-about Canadiens getting their flowers this postseason.
His seven points in 15 playoff games nearly matches the 11 points he notched in 39 regular-season outings.
And then there's Slafkovsky, repeatedly announcing himself as a game-changing forward.
The 22-year-old is coming off a career-best season in 2025-26, collecting 30 goals for the first time and finishing with 73 points in 82 games.
He also had four goals and eight points in six games while representing Slovakia at the 2026 Olympic Games in Milan.
No doubt riding alongside Suzuki and Caufield had a direct effect on Slafkovsky's output.
So, maybe that's why some of the hockey universe are now noticing just how impactful Slafkovsky has become.
But Slafkovsky is just one of several newer players stepping up to leaguewide star status in these playoffs, especially after Montreal's emphatic 6-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 1 of the conference finals Wednesday.
Slafkovsky scored twice in a three-point effort and received praise for how he and his teammates excelled against Carolina's defense.
“He's one of their big guys,” Taylor Hall said. “He's a great player, and that whole line [with Suzuki and Caufield] is so dangerous, and they're hopefully going to have a tougher time [going forward] than they did last night.”
“I think there are no secrets -- we knew who [Slafkovsky] was before the last game,” Canes coach Rod Brind'Amour added. “He had a great game -- but a lot of their guys did.”
Alexandre Texier and Ivan Demidov scored in Game 1, as well.
Montreal is blessed to have well-acknowledged elite talents such as Suzuki and Caufield coming off historic regular seasons, and Lane Hutson drawing comparisons to the league's best blueliners just two years into his NHL tenure.
The postseason is when those skaters are easily neutralized, though, and a team's success or failure hinges on its secondary cast stealing the spotlight.
Guhle, Texier, Demidov, Slafkovsky, Alex Newhook and Jakub Dobes are making things happen.