Red Light newsletter 🏒 | This is The Athletic’s hockey newsletter. Sign up here to receive Red Light directly in your inbox.Good morning, all, I’m Max Bultman, once again filling in for James Mirtle, who is covering the Eastern Conference final. The Stanley Cup Final is nearly set, but the hockey world is in mourning after the sad news of Claude Lemieux’s death. We’ll cover that before taking a look at the playoffs.Let’s go.Claude Lemieux with the Devils in 1991. (Steve Crandall / Getty Images)💔 In MemoriamClaude Lemieux dies at 60Claude Lemieux, whose death was announced Thursday, was one of the great playoff performers in the history of the sport. A four-time Stanley Cup champion with three different franchises — two with the New Jersey Devils and one each with the Colorado Avalanche and Montreal Canadiens — he won the 1995 Conn Smythe Trophy with the Devils and ranks ninth all-time with 80 postseason goals. In a league where coming up clutch is everything, that stat says it all.His reputation as an agitator was similarly well-earned, most famously through his 1996 hit on Kris Draper that shattered Draper’s face and helped spark an era-defining rivalry between the Avalanche and Red Wings. But polarizing as he was, Lemieux was a true hockey lifer.When his playing days ended, Lemieux made the transition to a successful player agent, and, devastatingly, just this week, he carried the torch into Bell Centre for Game 3 between the Montreal Canadiens and Carolina Hurricanes:As Dan Robson’s touching remembrance notes, “pest,” “agitator” and “dirty” were among the many words used to describe Lemieux. But there was so much more: “winner,” of course, and, in the words of Brendan Shanahan, “a big crier. A big softie.”“Sort of hidden behind that reputation on the ice, he was a very sweet and sensitive man,” said Shanahan, who played with Lemieux in New Jersey before being on the opposite side of the Red Wings-Avs rivalry.Lemieux is survived by his wife, Deborah, and his four children: Brendan (who played seven years in the NHL and who is named after Brendan Shanahan), Michael, Christopher and Claudia.May he rest in peace.(Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)Narrowing FieldEye of the HurricaneAfter a rocky start to the Eastern Conference final, Carolina is back to looking like, well, Carolina. The Hurricanes steamrolled the Montreal Canadiens, 4-0, in Game 4 of the series on Wednesday, taking a 3-1 lead, pushing Montreal to the brink and moving to 11-1 in this postseason.The Canadiens fell in overtime in Games 2 and 3, and despite lopsided shot counts in both, Game 4 was the first time Carolina really ran away with one. Is that a sign that the Hurricanes are fully hitting their stride as a smothering, 200-foot force that has learned the right lessons from past shortcomings? Or is Montreal wearing down after two grueling series in the first two rounds? Or is it a simple gap in the rosters? Probably all of the above.