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Anything Can Happen?

April 17, 2019, 12:53 PM ET [330 Comments]
Karine Hains
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Yes, seeing the near perfect Lightning with a 128 points season was a big big surprise but the Penguins being ousted? That wasn't. For once, the Pens were out of playoffs position around Christmas and it was only towards the end of the season that they finally got the coveted X next to their name. They might have Sidney Crosby in their line-up but the bottom line is, even Crosby, Malkin and Kessel cannot be expected to crush a team who's goaltender has got a .956 save percentage. And by the way, Lehner's performance was no surprise either as he had an excellent 0.930 in the regular season to go along with his 25 wins and 2.13 GAA. To me, the Islanders this year are motivated to show John Tavares that they can go places without him.

As for Tampa, you may recall that the Habs swept them as well in the 2014 playoffs but that was a whole different story. Back then, John Cooper's team did not have its number one goalie as Ben Bishop was injured and it showed. The year following that sweeping, Tampa beat our Habs in 6 games in the second round. Had Montreal made the playoffs I do not believe that the Lightning would be booking their next golf outing this morning. No... Columbus might have been the last team to punch its ticket to the playoffs but with the moves their GM made at the trade deadline, they improved by leaps and bounds. In the end, Tampa will have won just as many playoffs games as the Habs this year, none.



It took some time for the existing Jackets to really click with the new Jackets (Dzingel, Duchene, Keith Kinkaid and Adam McQuaid - the latter two were not used in the series) and show what they could do, but eventually, they did. That lead not only to their qualifying but to a star-studded line-up upsetting the President trophy winners. I mean Dubois, Duchene, Foligno and Booner at centre that right there is quite a good centre line. Add Panarin,Atkinson, Bjorkstrand, Dzingel, Anderson and even Dubinsky (who can be a right nuisance to opposing players), that right there is a very deep line-up. Furthermore, Werenski, Jones and Savard make an excellent top 3 on the blue line. Sure, Montreal has Domi, Gallagher, Tatar, Danault but Kotkaniemi needs some seasoning so to speak, Drouin needs to be consistent and well, what doesn't the defense need? While the Canadiens scored more goals than they did in the last few years, there were still some drought on offense and the power play has been MIA all year. Yesterday, Columbus opened the score on the power play and stunned the Bolts who never really recovered. Had the Habs been playing, chances are that's not how the game would have started.

The simple reality is that the Habs just don't measure up. Not yet anyways and that's fine... As Molson and Bergevin said in last year's end of season press conference, the team is in a reset. In the second season of a reset, you shouldn't be expecting your team to be able to upset the President Trophy winners. Had the Canadiens been further in this process, Bergevin might have made bigger moves at the deadline knowing that his team had a good chance of making more than an appearance in the playoffs. But this year, in the real world, it was fine for him to sit tight and make a couple of depth moves to give his coach a fourth line he would be comfortable with.

What's that you say? The Habs should have tanked to win the lottery? Tell that to the Avalanche who had the league leading odds (18.5%) of getting the first pick and who will select 4th. And what about the Chicago Blackhawks who had a 2.5% chance of picking first and who will be picking 3rd (there was a 3% chance of that happening). The bottom line is; whatever happens, happens.

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