Montreal Canadiens: The soundtrack of the 2017/18 season

Track 1. Come On, Come On – Smash Mouth

The weeks leading up the regular season was exciting for the Montreal Canadiens. Regardless of the moves made over the summer, or lack thereof, there were still a lot of things to look forward to. Jonathan Drouin was the new shiny toy within the organization who looked to be the piece to help the team’s centre position. Additionally, Karl Alzner was the big product of free agency expected to add more stability to the blueline while there were hopes that the likes of Brendan Gallagher, Tomas Plekanec, and Alex Galchenyuk could have bounce-back seasons offensively.

Not to mention the chances of some youth cracking the line up as well as the debut year of the Laval Rocket as the Habs new AHL affiliate. Sure there was some apprehension at the losses of Alexander Radulov and Andrei Markov, but it was generally an upbeat, foot-tapping, feel among the fans to start off training camp.

Plus, what 90’s movie, which is a nice comparison for the Montreal Canadiens, doesn’t have Smash Mouth in there somewhere?

Track 2. Warning – Green Day

Here we have the first signs of what was to come. The preseason had many Habs fans look to their neighbours with worry in their eyes. After defeating the Boston Bruins 3-2, Montreal lost the next five games only scoring seven goals to their opponent’s 22. The concerns from the Habs playoff series against the New York Rangers were coming to the surface again: they couldn’t score.

Thankfully, the Montreal Canadiens lit up the Ottawa Senators 9-2 in their final game of the preseason to bring a level of reassurance to the fans. At the same time, many were nonchalant about it stressing the fact that it was just the preseason. Were they right?

Track 3. I Still Remember – Bloc Party

To answer the question from Track 2, maybe. An exciting debut game for the Montreal Canadiens ended in a shootout victory thanks to Drouin. After that night was when things began to come off the rails a bit. The Montreal Canadiens lost their next seven games where they scored one goal or less in four of them.

It was reminiscent of what was seen in the preseason and pushed Habs fans back to memories of Radulov, Markov, and even at times P.K. Subban. The losing streak came to an end with a 5-1 win over the Florida Panthers. Offence was the name of the game for Montreal that night thanks to Gallagher, Alex Galchenyuk, Max Pacioretty, and Shea Weber.

“See, scoring goals isn’t a problem after all”, many Habs fans thought. But the lore of the preseason never disappeared.