Montreal Canadiens: Team Tank has won the Second-Half War
By Omar L
It’s official. The Montreal Canadiens are out of playoff contention and with another nine games to go, the draft lottery is in the minds of many fans.
Let’s turn back the clocks and the calendars to September of 2017. The Montreal Canadiens, as well as the other 30 teams in the NHL, were getting ready for the preseason to start the year off. However, loss after loss came for the Habs as they went without a win in their first six games. To make matters worse, the team struggled to put up goals getting outscored 25-9 in that time frame.
It was okay though, why? Because it was just the preseason. The Montreal Canadiens struck twice in the win column including the 9-2 thrashing handed to the Ottawa Senators. The regular season started, and similar performances came for the Habs. Shots and scoring chances were difficult to convert on, and they didn’t have starting goaltender Carey Price at his best.
I’m not going to go over every single detail that happened this season, so let’s fast forward to the present day (roughly). The Montreal Canadiens have been shutout in back-to-back games not scoring since Nicoles Deslauriers’ 3-3 tying goal against the Pittsburgh Penguins. To be more precise, the Habs haven’t turned a red light on in 147:03 of playing time.
Most importantly, depending on what is on your mind currently, the Montreal Canadiens are out of playoff contention for the 2017/18 season. From the looks of this Stu Cowan tweet, no one wanted to stay to watch the mathematical end of the year.
Scene at Bell Centre with 2 minutes left in game and #Habs losing 2-0 pic.twitter.com/ywgVSXjI6S
— Stu Cowan (@StuCowan1) March 20, 2018
People could also be leaving early to beat traffic so we can’t discount that possibility either.
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The war between Team Tank and Team Push is finally over. Granted, a lot of people were on the tank side of things for a while now, but it’s all cannon fire from here on out. With nine games left, there are only two aspects of the Habs to pay attention to.
One, how the younger players on the team are doing, and two, where they finish in the standings. The likes of Noah Juulsen, Mike Reilly, and Nikita Scherbak to name a few have stepped up into big roles, and the jury is still out on Michael McCarron. As for the standings, the Habs are 26th in the league and have a 7.6% chance of winning the draft lottery. Who knows whether those odds will improve, but they may if the Montreal Canadiens continue to struggle to score in this final stretch of the season.
Morning Links
Just in case you missed Claude Julien‘s comments on Carey Price dressing for the Habs in last night’s game. There was a lot of controversy with bringing him back now and relatively soon, but Julien assured media that the starting goaltender is healthy and ready to go.
The Worst Canadiens Team of All Time?
Using ‘The Worst’ to describe something is always tough considering the tone of the word. However, what the Montreal Canadiens have put on display this year may make fans think this.
Montreal Canadiens Prospects Looking to Leave Their Mark
For many of the Habs youth, training camp for next season has already begun as they look to make an impact on the team that will stick in the coaching staff’s minds.
Next: Reasons For Hope Next Season
What are you looking forward to for the rest of the year? Let us know in the comments below?