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Claude Julien has a pretty good idea why the St. Louis Blues won the Stanley Cup and it’s also the reason why he has one regret about the way last season ended for the Canadiens.

“The thing I took from it — and I’ve always believed this — is if you peak at the right time, anything can happen,” Julien said prior to teeing it up Thursday in Jonathan Drouin’s charity golf tournament at Laval-sur-le-Lac. “Once you get in the playoffs, it’s everybody’s opportunity if you peak at the right time.”

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The Canadiens were deprived of that opportunity when they let a playoff berth slip away during the final week of the season.

Photo by Dave Sidaway / Montreal Gazette

“The most disappointing thing for me as a coach was that I felt our team was playing its best hockey at the end of the year,” said Julien.

Julien noted that Tampa Bay was swept in the first round of the playoffs after finishing with the best regular-season record in the NHL, while St. Louis won the Cup after they began 2019 with the worst record in the league.